I’m not surprised by this. I have never understood the logic behind solving a problem by moving the problem from one location to the other. The success or non-success of a school is mostly determined by the students, not the teachers or the school. Good students will do well even in bad schools. Bad students will do poorly in good schools.
It’s interesting to note that the noticeable improvements came from students who did relatively well before entering the voucher program. This is understandable since these students showed motivation before and are more likely to take advantage of a better environment than the kids who did poorly before entering the program. A voucher program will most likely help the kids who needed the least help in the first place.
When you look at the black community, you see a steady increase in blacks achieving high professional status while at the same time, you see an increase social failure of many. What you are seeing is one group gradually receiving more benefits from taking advantage of the opportunities today while another group is becoming less and less motivated and getting worse and worse. This is what is being shown in the voucher schools. The motivated inner city students, who did fairly well before, will improve while the ones who didn’t do well (typically the unmotivated ones) will do no better.
Many FReepers seem to think that the problems in the schools are mainly caused by the teachers, and particularly the NEA.
While I know there are some incompetent teachers, and I don't agree with most of the NEA's positions, I agree with you that students and parents are a huge factor.