Children will be able to transfer at 8,652 schools

USA Today ^ | 7/2/02 | Tamara Henry

[GeneD]

WASHINGTON

[Irene Adler]

This is where it starts. Good for Bush. Once school choice really gets going, parents in more and more places will demand the right to choose their kids' schools, and the other schools will have to begin to compete effectively or start losing lots of state aid. The NEA won't be able to hold back the tidal wave. It will take awhile, but this is a bigger start than I had anticipated.

[LarryLied]

Bush always goes for the win/win situation. These kids might get a better education by transferring. But if they wreck the schools they transfer to,other parents will pull their kids out of government schools altogether.

[Snoopers-868th]

I think school of choice if fine but not with taxpayer money. Public schools or "taxpayer funded schools" were designed to educate the masses. If certain people don't like the education for the masses they have always been free to pay for whatever education they choose. Further, why should low-income only be given the money and right to transfer their kids when it has only existed for the rich? Again, screw the middle class working poor but save the lazy.... And finally, do these people really believe they deserve what the rich have??? I think this is not choice this is stealing right out of my billfold. We have an education system for the masses anything beyond that is "privilege."

[valkyrieanne]

Transfer to where? Are nearby districts going to be *forced* to accept transfer students from the inner cities? What about their "choice" in the matter?

[R2]

What about all the students at failing schools that don't meet Title 1 status?

Currently, they are screwed. I'm still being taxed to pay for failing schools. This is welfare. It needs to be universal! Total school choice!

[LetsRok]

Transfer to where? Are nearby districts going to be *forced* to accept transfer students from the inner cities?

No school is required to accept these "voucher students". The private schools that perform the best do so by eliminating "troublemakers" who are not there to learn. Also, what is to prevent the private schools from increasing their tuition rates to nullify the amount of the voucher?

[valkyrieanne]

No school is required to accept these "voucher students". The private schools that perform the best do so by eliminating "troublemakers" who are not there to learn. Also, what is to prevent the private schools from increasing their tuition rates to nullify the amount of the voucher?

The issue here is NOT private schools or vouchers; this article is about the new education reform bill just passed into law. The 8,600+ schools mentioned are schools defined as "failing inner city public schools." Their students will be eligible to go to *other public school districts.*

My understanding is that public school students in "failing inner city schools" are going to be able to transfer into public school districts that "aren't failing" and that the state will be *forced* to adopt the transportation costs. (MO US Senator Jean Carnahan tried to get the education reform bill amended so that the Feds would pay for the transportation, but it failed.)

What it looks like to me, from reading the papers, is that good public school districts will indeed be *forced* to accept those students. Otherwise the "right" to transfer to another district would be moot and the law would have no force.