I've written before that I don't believe public schools will be recognizable two decades from now.  Apparently, Margaret Spellings, former secretary of education, agrees ("Get Ready for An á la Carte Education," The Wall Street Journal, Jul. 8). Of course, no one can predict the future with certainty, but if I'm reading the signs correctly, public education will become a consumer product, with many of the features associated with it.

The question is why.  Is the present system so terrible? There are powerful interests who have managed to convince taxpayers that this is the case.  They cite only the failures - but never the successes - of public schools. There's no doubt about the former or about the latter. However, the media rarely headline schools that excel. The only exception is charter schools, which have become the darlings of reformers ("$250,000 Broad Prize for charter schools goes to KIPP Foundation," Los Angeles Times, Jul. 8).  I salute those charter schools that have managed to provide a solid education to students who were failing in traditional public schools. But charter schools play by a completely different set of rules, and even though they do, they don't always succeed.

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