New Orleans is an Early Test for School Choice

The American Interest ^ | September 30, 2013 | Walter Russell Mead

[JerseyanExile]

No city has embraced the school choice movement more than New Orleans. Yet over the past few weeks, the Wall Street Journal has been taking a close look at how the idea is working out, and the results have been decidedly mixed.

The biggest problem is that there simply aren’t enough high-quality schools to go around. The city grades each public or charter school on an A–F scale, and only 14 percent of seats were in schools with a B or higher. Given the the dearth of high-performers and the limited number of seats at these schools, parents are often left to choose among a number of bad options.

Perhaps more troubling, however, is that some parents may not be interested in the better schools:

Complicating results in the education marketplace, some families haven’t used their choices as expected: Nearly 35% of the approximately 6,700 students applying to transfer or enroll at a public school for the fall semester selected either D- or F-graded schools as their first pick, the Journal found….

[Count of Monte Fisto]

The biggest problem is that there simply aren’t enough high-quality schools students to go around.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks JerseyanExile.

Jindal to Obama admin: Yes, come tell LA. parents why children should be stuck in failing schools
Hotair | 09/30/2013 | Erika Johnsen
Posted on 09/30/2013 4:47:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3073123/posts