This article features the author's reply to John Coons's "Dodging Democracy: The Educator's Flight from the Specter of Choice." First, he wants to thank Coons for his thoughtful and thought-provoking reply to "Public Funding for 'Private' Education: The Equity Challenge of Enhanced Choice." So thought provoking, in fact, did the author find Coons's reply that he reread it several times. For all the reasons he detailed in his original argument, he does not see public funding of private schools as a necessary, or even a promising, way to augment the educational and life chances of society's most disadvantaged children. He does, however, believe that choice within the public sector can be an efficacious way of augmenting both for poor children from educationally disadvantaged families--but only if and when state, provincial, and national legislators have the courage to insist on the following: (1) open school zoning with transportation; (2) interdiction of the use of admission criteria that serve as a proxy for socioeconomic status (SES); (3) extensive and detailed information programs to parents on choices available to them and the consequences of those choices for their children; (4) stringent limitations on the generation and use of private resources by public schools; and (5) a common core curriculum that ensures that each child, regardless of the educational choices of his or her parents, can participate in the broader intellectual and civic life of her or his society--and not just in some narrow enclave within it. According to him, he is more centrist than Coons, although, like Coons, he is profoundly disappointed with the track record of public education as a social equalizer, and like Coons he believes that drastic change is urgently needed. Still, like Coons, he is pragmatic enough to realize that no one is going to transform the public education colossus overnight. Unlike Coons, however, he believes that public education still represents the best chance at improving the educational and life chances of poor children from educationally disadvantaged families. And according to him, even Coons, after all, argues that public education should remain education's First Estate. (Contains 2 notes.)