May 9, 2008
THE THIRD WAY PREVAILS EVERYWHERE BUT DEMOCRATIC CAUCUSES:
Six books a week: Harlem parents are voting for charter schools with their feet (The Economist, 5/08/08)
THOSE who had won whooped with joy and punched their fists. The disappointed shed tears. Some 5,000 people attended April 17th's Harlem Success Academy Charter School lottery, the largest ever held for charter schools in the history of New York state. About 3,600 applied for 600 available places, and 900 applied for the 11 open slots in the second grade.Posted by Orrin Judd at May 9, 2008 11:30 AMThe desperation of these parents is hardly surprising. In one Harlem school district, not one public elementary school has more than 55% of its pupils reading at the level expected for their grade. And 75% of 14-year-olds are unable to read at their grade level. So Harlem parents are beginning to leave the public school system in crowds.
If a charter school gets more applications than it has space for, a lottery must be held. Hence April's event. Joel Klein, the chancellor of New York City's schools, attended, describing it as a “transformative night” that would “go down in the history of school reform”. Mr Klein said he thought Harlem's public schools were getting better, but noted that a little competition helps everyone run faster. Last November he announced a plan which, in effect, would “charterise” the entire New York City school system, which has 1.1m children.
Harlem now has the most charter schools per square mile in the United States, yet demand still exceeds supply.
Speakin' as one of them thar' white voters that Obama just can't reach, if the GOP really wanted to break the blacks away from the Democrats, here is where to start. In NYC of all places - although I suspect Sharpton knows if he protested this, he would lose a substantial part of the community.
Posted by: ratbert at May 10, 2008 8:56 AMThe problem is that a universal school choice program threatens the middle class with having lower class kids in their schools.
Posted by: oj at May 10, 2008 10:06 AM