A system of PK-16 parental choice would look much more like the current situation in early education and in postsecondary education than like the system of K-12 neighborhood schools. The changes required would provide more options for a tailored or customized educational experience for each child than those now offered by the K-12 public school infrastructure. The problem with that infrastructure is not that it does not serve some children well--it does--but that it tends to treat the children as interchangeable units, rather than as individuals with unique learning needs. The system tends to work toward sustaining and expanding itself, rather than toward the success of each child. The bureaucracies associated with education are not the same as the delivery of education. In this article, the author takes a look at the current systems and considers the role parental choice plays in them. (Contains 13 endnotes.)