It is understandable that parents who have never sent their children to public schools would fear subpar schooling within government-funded walls.  Every parent ultimately wants what's best for their children, and with a constant drumbeat of news coverage about the crisis of American public education, those who have the funds to procure what they believe is a superior education for their child can hardly be faulted for writing a $4,000 check to a religious school, or a $30,000 check to an exclusive Manhattan preschool.¹ Even putting parental fears about public schooling aside,  transitioning private school kids to public schools will undoubtedly present some difficulties for all parties involved. Switching schools is never an easy proposition for a child, and, as the Times points out, many public schools are already overcrowded and are hardly prepared for an influx of private school refugees. 

At the same time, there may be a silver lining here.  Many parents will discover that public schools--even urban public schools--are not the educational abysses portrayed in the influential Jon Lovitz masterpiece High School High.  (With due respect to Mr. Ross, I don't know of many public schools that will actually allow his children be "home by two.").  Furthermore, the same parents who willingly doled out thousands of dollars to their kids' private schools will likely support their child's new public school as well, and schools can always benefit from the involvement of parents who are concerned with their children's education.  And both the public school and ex-private school kids involved may thrive from learning in classrooms that better reflect the diversity of the surrounding neighborhood.  This is not to say that parents should always send their kids to public schools as a matter of policy--I'm a Pierce v. Society of Sisters kinda guy--but if there is going to be an influx of private school kids into public schools, those schools may well be strengthened by involvement of a broader cross-section of the community in American public education.

1. Full disclosure: I am a product of both religious and public schooling, and, like everybody else in the world, I think I turned out all right. 

Today the Detroit Free Press reported on the newest plan to cut the city's $139-million deficit by closing up to 18 schools. With shrinking enrollments over the last few years, the schools don't have the bodies to warrant operating half full (or half empty?) buildings. There are 52 schools currently being considered for closure which means 52 principals, 52 staffs of teachers, 52 groups of innocent children are now waiting anxiously to find out if it is their neighborhood school that will be next on the chopping block. 

As the city with the lowest graduation rate in the entire country, this newest news strikes a chord.  Students will need to be shuffled around to new schools next year in a district where working towards a high school diploma is clearly not the norm.  How many kids will slink into the shadows now?  With Detroit laying off hoards of employees every week and school enrollment doing a parallel nose dive, the bitter truth is that the current situation is not going to improve before the district decides which schools to close this summer.  Detroit might be sinking but that doesn't mean that the students that occupy her classrooms should pay the price.  The hope, of course, is that the DPS--even in the midst of its budget crisis--has set aside some resources to help acclimate the students who are required to change schools and minimize the disruption it will cause to their academic careers.  It's the least that can be done to provide a brighter future for some of Detroit's children.  If this news make you feel anxious, too, consider doing something to encourage hope and purpose for a child or school in Detroit.   

Photo credits: http://www.detroityes.com/webisodes/2008/080410-the50/103-McMillanSchool.htm, http://flickr.com/photos/51586455@N00/2807960166/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitderek/1392880463/

Yesterday, Rhee said that revised budgetary projections for the D.C. school system were forcing her to scale back her original proposal.  Interestingly, though, much of the money for her wage proposal didn't even come from public funding.  As the Washington Post reports, Rhee's wage proposal was to be financed for four years via a consortium of private funders, at which point the D.C. schools would have taken on the responsibility for the increased wages.  The list of funders that was leaked to the Post read like a veritable who's who of philanthropists: Dell, Gates, Broad, Robinson.  Thus, not only was the Rhee proposal a bold move away from a lockstep, tenure-based compensation model, it was also an extremely interesting foray into public-private partnerships in education reform.

Rhee said yesterday that the private funding for her proposal remained intact, but, given the economic crisis, she had become uncertain as to whether the District could shoulder the increased cost of teacher salaries after the first four years.  Although Rhee is going to submit a revised proposal, it now looks like the chancellor might not be able to (depending on your perspective) a) create a respected class of highly paid inner-city teachers, or, b) smash America's proud institution of teacher tenure.  Still, I hope that Rhee's proposal will be remembered as a historic  private-public collaboration for the benefit of educational reform.  It's becoming increasingly obvious that state and local governments don't even have the money to maintain their current systems, let alone make expensive reforms.  And the revised stimulus package suggests that the federal government is probably not going to swoop in and rescue beleagured school districts, after all. But a lack of government funding doesn't mean that educational reform has to come to an abrupt halt.  Private donors have funded some interesting ventures in public schools during the past few years--witness, for example, the Kalamazoo Promise, which provides free college tuition for kids who attend the Kalamazoo Public Schools.  If beleagured school districts are going to continue down the path of educational reform, they probably are going need money to do so.  And with the state and local government rapidly falling short on funds, it's up to those Americans with funds to spare to act in the best traditions of American philanthropy and invest now in the future of this country. 

The College Board released statistics today showing that black students across America take Advanced Placement (AP) tests at significantly lower levels than whites, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students take the test at disproportionately low levels as well.  Unfortunately, this news isn't much of a surprise.  In many low-income schools—as well as those that serve high levels of racial minorities—the focus is often on bringing struggling students up to a minimally adequate level of education, not on preparing top students for college-level work. 

Of course, giving all students an adequate education needs to be a priority.  But schools that focus on bringing low-performing students up to speed often wind up neglecting the needs of the gifted and talented students in their population.  Even when schools do maintain classes and programs for gifted students, these programs are often first on the chopping block when money is tight.  With budgetary shortfalls plaguing schools across the country, the tension between catching students up and providing a challenging education for high achievers is unlikely to resolve itself anytime soon.  Federal stimulus dollars are unlikely to help: as today's New York Times editorial points out, the money earmarked for education in the stimulus package is mostly meant to forestall layoffs and programatic cuts.  But as the Times notes, even that won’t happen "if the states adopt the familiar strategy of cutting their own contributions to education...while using federal dollars to plug the hole." More...