Free market demands CAPE

The free market. The strength of our nation was built upon it. We take pride in the dismantling of communism around the globe, pointing to the failures of monolithic, bureaucratic institutions, yet for the greatest single driver of future economic prosperity, education, we complacently embrace the same.

Competition was established in Camarillo 30 years ago with alternative schools. Yet in recent decisions by the Pleasant Valley School District, competition has been abolished. Even though more effective in terms of test scores, their agenda has been to shutter them or remove the essential elements that make them alternatives, effectively leading to central control, one school for everyone. Karl Marx would be proud.

True, our system offers the alternative of private school, yet isn't this a greater indicator of failure than any statistic: people in our district are increasingly willing to pay for what is freely offered elsewhere? Can you imagine customers turning down a free Ford, so they could buy a Chevy or vice versa? We should be outraged that such conditions exist in our educational system.

However, there is another rule of economics: market forces will act regardless of a governing organization's level of control. A real alternative is forcing its way out. The Camarillo Academy of Progressive Education (CAPE) has filed to convert the closing Los Senderos into a selfmanaged, public education alternative, breaking the monopoly and sending a message to school board members that we will not accept conformity and mediocrity.

Like any other monopoly threatened, the school district has painted a scenario of woe, but the truth is no additional tax dollars are required. Is closing good schools in favor of overcrowded campuses a sign of effective management? Isn't it time to differentiate our educational portfolio?

This is not an ill-considered, costly, or knee-jerk plan but merely an inevitable reaction to an inefficient market. This is the reason our state overwhelmingly supports chartering.

Please support CAPE in their efforts to break the monopoly of educational control in Camarillo. Please allow real alternatives a chance to improve education for all children in Camarillo. If competition were bad, the only superpower in the world would be the USSR. Christopher Learned Camarillo