WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – We would like to thank Palm Beach County school board member Debra Robinson for doing a fine job of summing up the school choice debate raging across the nation.

There are basically two competing approaches – allowing the elitists in the public school establishment to determine what’s best for students (as well as their own salaries and pensions), or allowing parents to make that determination.

The elitist approach has been publicly endorsed by Robinson, who wants the Palm Beach school board to defy state standards on the charter school approval process.

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Robinson “wants the school district to only approve new charters if they serve a specific niche community or meet a specific need that isn’t being served by the traditional district-run schools,” the Palm Beach Post reported.

In other words, Robinson wants to limit the number of charter schools and school choice opportunities for students and parents. She believes it should be the right of the school board to determine for each child whether his or her needs are being met in a traditional public school.

If board members believe Johnny is getting everything he needs at his neighborhood school, they would force him to stay, regardless of whether his parents agree with that assessment.

“I am ready to take a stand and let people appeal to Tallahassee (the state board of education) if they want to,” Robinson was quoted as saying.

Exactly who is Robinson taking a stand for? Certainly not students or their parents. She’s standing for the public school employees and teachers union officials who depend on state education dollars to maintain their jobs and lifestyles.

As more kids transfer to charter schools, fewer state dollars will flow to traditional schools, fewer teachers will be needed in those schools, and fewer dues dollars will be paid to the unions.

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School choice is clearly a threat to the education establishment, particularly the unions.

But we don’t pay tax dollars to please the education establishment. We pay to get the best possible education for students, in whatever type of school works best for them.

That should be left up to the parents, who know their kids better than anyone. Charter school attendance in Palm Beach County increased from about 6,000 in 2004 to about 12,000 today. Apparently a growing number of families are happy with the charter schools.

Who is Robinson to tell them they shouldn’t have that option? If she wants more students to stay in traditional schools, she should push the schools to provide better services, so they will want to stay.

But she and her colleagues should not have the right to put the kids on lockdown and prevent new charter schools from opening, just so a bunch of union teachers can maintain their jobs.

It’s supposed to be about the kids, remember?