Tuesday, February 14, 2006

"Boys Of Baraka" Continued 

Turns out that Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post Editorial Board was with me last week during my WEDJ PCS field trip at The Warner Theater to see the movie "Boys of Baraka." Today, she writes movingly about the film and actually knows well one of the directors of the Baraka School. A couple of paragraphs from her column stand out:

Yet for all the legitimate complaints from many on the left about the straitjacketed rules and underfunded mandates of No Child Left Behind, for all the heartfelt concern about the threats posed by charter schools and voucher programs, it's impossible to watch this film and think anything other than: whatever it takes to give these children and others like them a chance.

Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly the point I made with Colbert King when I talked to him about supporting school vouchers 7 years ago. Here is one last excerpt:

What you wouldn't have known from the packed house was how hard the sponsors, the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, had to work to get some of the students there. Most were from charter schools, which snapped up the invitations. But organizers made call after call trying to overcome the bureaucratic inertia of the D.C. school system.

Of the city's 37 traditional middle and high schools, students from only seven came.

No comment necessary.

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