Not often my home town, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is in the news

Yet another argument in favor of school choice (via TigerHawk):

School technology facilitator Janet Erbe knows a lot about computers. So do more than 1800 students at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids. They also know one certain computer blog site is off limits. Erbe says, "it's frightening. It's frightening. That's why it is filtered here at school."

Erbe is talking about Xanga.com. An online diary blog site popular amongst Eastern Iowa teens. Erbe says, "kids use it to vent. And sometimes they say good things, sometimes they say inappropriate things."

Well, first of all, we're talking about the school's computers, not the students' home computers.  They belong to the school, and the school is and should be free to regulate their property in anyway they see fit.  The beef should be, if there needs to be a beef, that the public school is the only game in town.  The parents should at least (moderate) have a choice of schools, schools that may or may not have restrictions on student internet sites.  Or, better yet (Libertarian) the government should just get the hell out of education altogether and let private people do the job.