Most of the conflicts in public education – charters, vouchers, privatization, the reading wars are fought in policy journals, state capitals and Washington. Rachal Tuinstra of the Seattle Times' Eastside bureau reminds us that the math wars are being fought between parents and documented on the Local page of our nation's newspapers.

To your editor, until the evidence becomes clear that all students in all circumstances do better with the new or traditional pedagogy, parents ought to be able to choose either. Wars break out when they can’t because the district has chosen for them. Based on what? Some mix of switching costs, public opinion, teacher preferences, superintendent or cabinet professional judgment, board politics, teacher preferences. There’s nothing particularly objective about it.

Districts impose a false choice on parents – and no less important, teachers - when they adopt a single curriculum in the absence of any real basis in evaluation. Until hard evidence rules a program clearly in or out, districts should be leaving these decisions to principals, teachers and parents, and watching the results.  It may complicate sales and marketing for school improvement firms, but it also opens up the market to smaller providers, and offers the nation a chance to see what works for whom, where and when.