Given the current political environment, I think vouchers are the best way to promote creativity and experimentation in schools. For example, take this post from Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution.

You know the plot. Young, idealistic teacher goes to inner-city high school. Said idealistic teacher is shocked by students who don’t know the basics and who are too preoccupied with the burdens of violence, poverty and indifference to want to learn. But the hero perseveres and at great personal sacrifice wins over the students using innovative teaching methods and heart. The kids go on to win the state spelling/chess/mathematics championship. c.f. Stand and Deliver, Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds etc.

We are supposed to be uplifted by these stories but they depress me. If it takes a hero to save an inner city school then there is no hope. Heroes are not replicable.

Tabarrok explains that according to econometrician Ian Ayres the teaching method that works best is Direct Instruction where teachers follow a carefully designed script.

The problem with this is obvious. As Ayers states, “The education establishment is wedded to its pet theories regardless of what the evidence says.” As a result they have fought it tooth and nail so that “Direct Instruction, the oldest and most validated program, has captured only a little more than 1 percent of the grade-school market.”

What is the best way for more children to have access to schools using direct instruction or other forms of teaching such as Montessori instruction? I don’t know of a better way than vouchers. The necessary experimentation isn’t going to occur at the public schools barring some cataclysmic change from the NEA. But giving parents greater opportunity to choose schools for their children is one step to improving children’s education.