John Tillman, chairman of the Illinois Policy Institute , uses a riff on the old Mark Twain quote about parents and children to describe public policy towards education.

Twain, you might recall, said something like this: "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned."

Tillman applies that logic towards government's attitudes towards parents. Unfortunately, he's not so much a humorist, but a straight-on reporter:

My daughter Lauren just turned 9. She still thinks I'm pretty smart. But I've heard from friends with teenagers that it won't be long until I'm really, really dumb. This period of dimness on my part should coincide with her 13th birthday and continue until she is about 18 or 19. Then, according to friends with older children, a miracle occurs and I will slowly once again become smart and my judgments may even be valued anew.

It turns out that is exactly how our public school system sees me, too. You see, I was smart enough to choose which pre-school my daughter attended, and I'll be smart enough to help her choose which college. But in between I'm too dumb to know which K-12 school she should attend. The government decides for me based upon where I live. It's a pretty raw deal if you live near any number of failing schools around the state and can't move or can't afford to pay private tuition on top of your school tax burden.

The K-12 public school system is a protected monopoly. Parents have few choices, and even those choices cost extra. There is no market, no competition, little innovation and very poor performance. As a result, the U.S. ranks among the worst in the world in K-12 education performance.

On the other hand, how do we fare with pre-school and post-secondary education when Mom and Dad know what is best? We have competition with many choices and we have--you guessed it--world-class excellence.

Our K-12 performance can be world-class--if legislators will recognize that father does know best. Okay, maybe not always, but certainly always better than a government bureaucrat.