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No choice, no peace in Upper St. Clair
...Most people don't question our system of public education. But it's not only absurd and consumer-unfriendly, it's creepily un-American. Imagine if we had to get our groceries this way. Imagine a state Department of Groceries. Imagine a public food system where citizens are assigned defined grocery districts.

If you wanted "free" public food, you'd shop at your local taxpayer-supported district supermarket. If you went to a private supermarket, crossed the grocery district line, or grew your own food, you'd still have to pay local food taxes.

Imagine a system of public grocery stores where every un-fireable union employee has to have a certificate from a state grocery college. Where a local food board sets food taxes, hires top grocery store bureaucrats and ultimately decides how many organic items should be stocked or whether the meat section should be expanded.

Imposing such a horrible, inefficient and stupid food-delivery system on Americans would cause a revolution. But an even less democratic system of public grocery stores -- with far less choice for consumers -- actually existed for decades. I saw it in 1988 in communist East Berlin.

Being forced to buy food in a depressing, pathetically understocked East Berlin government supermarket was a bit like being forced to buy public education in America. ...