The New York Post is looking at what causes some schools in New York City to be good, while other schools — often just blocks away — are cesspools.

I offer some thoughts on the matter here [archived copy]:

The rich in New York City already have school choice. Parents with means can choose where they live based on the quality of the local public schools.They can choose to send their children to local private schools.

Heck, they can even send their children to any boarding school in the world, if they so choose.

And because these parents are educated consumers with lots of options, the schools that compete for their education dollars know they have to perform.

It’s called the free market, and we know it works - for cars, for clothes, for computers, for practically anything we buy or consume.

When companies have to compete, consumers win.

Yet when it comes to one of the most important products any of us will ever purchase - a child’s education - we treat parents (at least the nonrich) as prisoners instead of as consumers.

The culprit? Longtime readers won’t be surprised that teachers unions bear much (most) of the blame. But school administrators and a political class unwilling to break up the educational monopoly place a strong second.