School Choice...

"School choice" does not have to be code speak for privatizing public education.

In truth, research shows that the educational outcomes for middle-class kids who attend "bad," socioeconomically integrated schools are similar to those of middle-class kids who attend "good," mostly white schools with little discernible poverty. Meanwhile, attending more diverse schools helps poor children immeasurably by allowing them to share in the benefits of having active, highly educated parents advocating on their behalf.

The point here is not to wring our hands over the choices of individual families. Some parents choose private school because they believe their child's education won't be complete without Latin. Others look for religious values, or a first-rate hockey team. Yet there is one education choice we consistently deny: the choice of poor, urban parents to send their children to suburban schools. Both conservative and progressive education reformers are fond of independently managed charter schools and even private school vouchers. Neither of these policy levers lessens school segregation, though, because they maintain strict lines between school districts.

In recent years, advocating for school integration was seen as impossibly retro, but now there is pretty decisive evidence that integration matters. The most recent National Assessment of Education Progress -- a test often referred to as "the nation's report card" -- shows that between 2004 and 2008, the achievement gap between white children and black and Latino children did not shrink at all. In other words, No Child Left Behind is not working. In fact, an analysis of the data since the 1970s shows that the achievement gap shrunk most during the period prior to the Reagan Revolution, when courts nationwide were still enforcing strict desegregation orders.

This doesn't mean we should reopen the busing wars. Rather, we should foster regional partnerships between urban and suburban districts. The Obama administration and Congress, as they consider the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind later this year, ought to provide more funding for the creation of high-quality public magnet schools in urban districts. Magnet programs in the sciences and performing arts encourage affluent parents to keep their kids within the public system. And when enrollment at those magnet schools is open to suburban students, seats for city kids become available at traditional suburban high schools. Cities such as Hartford, St. Louis, and Milwaukee already have oversubscribed inter-district transfer programs that work in this way.

As Secretary Duncan surely realizes, "school choice" does not have to be conservative code speak for privatizing public education. He chose to send his children to a public school in Arlington, Virginia, instead of one five miles away in downtown D.C. The question is, will he and the Obama administration work actively to allow all parents to share in the fruits of suburbia? Or are white picket fences and decent schools just for the few?

Posted via web from jimnichols's posterous