By Brandon Dutcher

I don't think he believed it would ever come to that. After all, wasn't he a benevolent tsar, a father to his people? The House of Romanov had ruled for three centuries. Surely his people would always be loyal.

But times were changing in turn-of-the-century Russia, and the increasingly unpopular autocrat failed to grasp the seriousness of it all. He was "insulating himself from unpleasant facts," University of Oklahoma historian J. Rufus Fears recently told me.

"History shows us that institutions collapse," Dr. Fears says, "when the people they are supposed to serve lose confidence in them."

In a survey conducted last year by Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, Americans were asked to grade the nation's public schools. More Americans gave the schools a D or an F than gave them an A or a B.

Here at home, a survey of 1,200 likely Oklahoma voters (margin of error of +/- 3 percent) asked the decidedly unloaded question: "If it were your decision and you could select any type of school, what type of school would you select in order to obtain the best education for your child?"

Seventeen percent said they would choose a regular public school. Eighty-three percent said they would choose something else.

That's not a misprint. Only 17 percent said they would choose a regular public school. The rest would choose a private school (41 percent), home school (19 percent), charter school (17 percent), or virtual school (6 percent).

And what was Big Ed's reaction to this overwhelming vote of no-confidence?

One union official mumbled something about the survey's methodology, but of course didn't produce any specific criticisms.

Another comforted herself with the assurance that "our parents do have a choice, and they overwhelmingly choose public schools." Which calls to mind the question posed by education reporter Mike Antonucci: "If the government, under the force of law, takes money from my paycheck every month to supply me and every other citizen with a Yugo, and I choose not to spend additional personal income on a Chevy, am I 'choosing' the Yugo?"

It would be tough to refute a survey conducted by a firm whose polls have been used by MSNBC, Time, and Newsweek, and have been cited as some of the nation's most accurate by National Journal's "Hotline." Realizing that, state Sen. Jay Paul Gumm (D-Durant) acknowledged the "opinion polls suggesting Oklahomans are losing confidence in public schools," but explained: "No wonder, given the relentless attacks on public schools repeatedly launched" by critics.

Did you catch that? People are losing confidence not because they are discerning consumers who are wise enough to know what they know. It's not because the product is defective; it's because weary taxpayers have the temerity to point out that the product is defective. The 400-pound woman has heart disease not because she inhales Big Macs and bon bons, but because her doctor has the audacity to diagnose her problem and shoot straight with her.

Some public-school enthusiasts are so insulated from unpleasant facts that they actually sing hosannas. An enraptured Sen. Gumm recently wrote of "the glory of public education." State Rep. Neil Brannon (D-Arkoma) said on the House floor that public education is the "salvation" of our country. State Rep. Scott Inman (D-Del City) averred that "our public school system is the greatest institution in the world."

Of course it is. And the Romanov dynasty will last forever.

At 83-17, I don't think I'd go the head-in-the-sand route. Big Ed needs to face reality. Because you know, institutions can collapse when people lose confidence in them.