Word has come this week that the founding principal of the city’s Arabic-language school is looking to get her job back, and she’s prepared to sue the city of New York to get it. Dhabah Almontaser, who resigned the Arab language and culture school in August, claims that the Department of Education and Mayor Bloomberg violated her constitutional rights under the First Amendment when they encouraged her to leave her post at the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn. Ms. Almontaser’s argument seems to be that she was pushed out after defending t-shirts promoting an “intifada” in New York City as “an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society… and shaking off oppression.” We’re unimpressed with Ms. Almontaser’s First Amendment claim; there are many things a principal could say that would warrant the loss of a job and putting the gloss on the Intifada would certainly be one of them.

Our own view of the matter, however, is that the controversy over Khalil Gibran actually presents Ms. Almontaser a chance to do something important — either applying to start a charter school or starting a private school. We do not belittle community concerns over the radical associations with which the Gibran school has been plagued from day one, including Ms. Almontaser’s inability to credibly distance herself from organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations. But from the start we have viewed this controversy through the prism of the movement for parental choice. Our impression is that the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, who has shown real grit in avoiding entanglements with Islamic extremism, conceives of the school as an alternative to the madrassas. But why should this problem be left to the government at all?

The need for an Arabic school in the city — if, indeed, such a need exists — would best be handled not by the public school system but through a system of school choice, either the existing mechanism of charter schools or our preferred system of vouchers. SUNY, the Board of Regents, and the New York City education department all have the power to grant a charter to an Arabic school should they be brought an application to do so. The chartering process would open up the school’s plan to public review, which could be only a good thing. And only if city parents had enough interest would the school be established. Better yet, Ms. Almontaser could go to the private sector to look for support for her vision.

The fact is that there are many serious people in New York, including those at the Anti-Defamation League, who have a lot of regard for Ms. Almontaser. The right move for her is to make this controversy not about her and her rights but about the rights of the parents of New York City pupils, no matter what their race or religion or national origin, to get the education for their children that they deem best. By far the greatest empowerment of parents would be a system of vouchers, an idea that was conceived of by Milton Friedman more than 50 years ago and that has grown more logical with every passing educational crisis in this city and country.

We will never forget the last time we met with Friedman. It was shortly before a dinner to celebrate the jubilee of his epiphany on schools. He and his wife, Rose, had agreed to meet privately with reporters, and when we were ushered into the small conference room they were using, we had a wonderful conversation. We were introduced to them as having come rather late to the idea of vouchers, and Friedman looked up and asked why. “What about the madrassas?” we responded. Here Mrs. Friedman responded, saying, “What are they doing now about the madrassas?” In eight words, she’d stumped us.

It may be that, like us, Ms. Almontaser is late coming to the idea of school vouchers and private sector solutions to what she, perhaps as both a parent and a teacher, sees as shortcomings in the state monopoly system. But we would urge her to think about the possibilities before rushing into court to make this a fight about her own personal employment grievances with the taxpayers of New York. This is about a larger question, and one where we can imagine Ms. Almontaser playing a constructive, even leading role. She would not be the first member of a minority community who realized the power of the idea of parental choice and vouchers. All of this beats a lawsuit, and all of it is on the table.