To the Editor:

Do you think more of your car than you do of your children?

If something is wrong with your car, you take it to a dealer to be fixed. When you get it back and it still is not right you either take it back to the dealer until you are satisfied or you go to another dealer. Competition forces the dealers to do a better job and satisfy their customers.

You send your child to school for 12 years and your chances are 2 to 1 that they will graduate. Even if they do, they have a 75 percent chance that they are behind grade level and will require 1 to 1.5 years of remediation to make it through college or to prepare for a productive and successful life.

Why do you not demand the same level of “customer service” and results from the business you have entrusted to educate your children? After all, is this not your most important responsibility as a parent?

You say, “Well there are no other options.” Whose fault is that? You continue to elect politicians that refuse to allow you the options a parent needs to see that their child receives the best education possible for that particular child. Every year since 1996, your previous state senators and state representatives voted to deny you those options by refusing to allow competition to exist. Your current state representatives, Phil Haire, D-Sylva, and Ray Rapp, D-Mars Hill, continue to do this. When will you realize that they vote for their best interests (campaign contributions) and the best interests of the monopoly, not the best interests of your children and grandchildren?

We have a lot excellent teachers in our public school system, but too often the best of them are frustrated by the bureaucracy that stifles their ability to teach. We can do better for our children and competition will cause all options to improve.

Bruce Gardner

Waynesville