BECAUSE SOME parents are more alert than other parents to the opportunity presented by a charter-school admissions lottery, David Segal, a Rhode Island state representative, would eliminate individual initiative and enter school patrons in a random draw (“The new educational divide,’’ Op-ed, Aug. 3). Parents then would have a negative choice if they won: They could opt their child out of the charter school. This proposal is taking egalitarianism to an absurd extreme.
No law is going to make parents equally savvy about education, although judging from the demand nationwide for charter schools and private vouchers, parents of modest means generally seem plenty alert to chances to move their children out of unsafe, unproductive public schools.
To the extent that there is a knowledge gap, the best way to address it is through more aggressive advertising of school choices. As for lotteries, there would be less reliance on them for admission if states and localities removed artificial caps and allowed more charter schools to open to meet rising parental demand.
Robert Holland
Senior fellow for education policy
The Heartland Institute
Chicago 
