Sunday, September 25, 2005
New York Times Supports School Vouchers
Alan Finder in the New York Times has an article today which reveals that the school district in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been able to significantly reduce the achievement gap between white students and minorities by using busing to make sure that no more than 40% of the kids in any one school are from low-income families. Here's the key paragraph so you don't have to read about a scenario which I highly doubt could be repeated elsewhere:
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"Low-income students who have an opportunity to go to middle-class schools are surrounded by peers who have bigger dreams and who are more academically engaged," said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who has written about economic integration in schools. "They are surrounded by parents who are more likely to be active in the school. And they are taught by teachers who more likely are highly qualified than the teachers in low-income schools."Mr. Finder is honest in saying that many parents oppose the program because of the long bus rides(sometimes an hour)their elementary school aged children must endure. But instead of setting up a bureaucratic system which by its very nature will be controversial, why not just let parents sent their kids to the private school of their choice? (Perhaps someday soon I will no longer have to ask this question.)
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