It says something about the state of the city’s public schools that a press release headlined “New York City Department of Education Removes 45 Principals for Poor Performance” strikes us as something to cheer about. Sure, things would be better were there no poorly performing principals. But rather than pretending that everything is perfect, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has taken an important step toward fixing the schools.

A Department of Education press release explains that “of the 45 principals who were removed from their positions,16 are tenured principals.” The other 29 are probationary principals. Getting rid of “tenured” principles is a sign that Messrs. Klein and Bloomberg are serious about changing what Mr. Klein has called the “broken” culture of public education.

Many of the “removed” principals are being demoted to other positions, still on the New York City payroll. If they fail in those positions, it would be logical to remove them from those jobs, too. Poor performance is just as intolerable in an assistant principal or a district desk-jockey.

Messrs. Klein and Bloomberg are right to stress the importance of accountability. Making principals accountable is a fine start. Even better would be an accountability that makes individual schools — and the government-run school system as a whole — accountable to parents by giving the parents the right to use a voucher to take their school funds with their student to a privately run or parochial school. That way accountability wouldn’t depend on Mr. Klein’s toughness. It would be built into the system.