The No Child Left Behind Act states that if children are not receiving an adequate education they may transfer to another school in the district. It's not happening.
Los Angeles Public Schools are challenging this mandate. Clint Bolick, writer for The Wall Street Journal, reports that over 300,000 students in LA alone are being denied transfer to better schools. Only 1% are being allowed to transfer.
Poor Communication
Bolick writes that the news is not getting out to families that this is an option for their children. The news is being buried with other information and not made clear. Children are instead being offered after school tutoring. School officials maintain that parents don't want their children to leave the failing schools.
Parents in the Dark
When parents were polled by The Polling Company in Los Angeles and Compton, only 11% of parents had any knowledge that their child's school was failing. And when asked about the transfer option, 82% of parents expressed a desire to have their children in better schools.
Parents also preferred transfers to parochial or private schools over public schools 2 to 1. Unfortunately, that is not an option under NCLB. Bolick states that this is very unfortunate because there are more students eligible to transfer than good schools available for them to transfer to.
What About Vouchers?
Wisconsin has had a voucher system for over 16 years that allows students to select any school for transfer -- public, charter or private. This system is not only working well but growing with over 65% of students not attending classes in their neighborhood school.
Senators Lamar Alexander and John Ensign and Representatives Buck McKeon and Sam Johnson have proposed adding private schools to the NCLB mandate for students in chronically failing schools. The proposal failed. So, for now at least, children that are poor have no options but to attend failing schools with up to 50% drop out rates while those that can afford better schools have a choice.
Federal Funds
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has threatened to withhold federal funds if Los Angeles does not comply with the NCLB mandate. The law gives Spellings tremendous power to enforce the law. Bolick writes that this should be national news but not one major California newspaper has picked up this story.
A low estimate is that over four million students are in failing schools in California. Many of them are running out of time to receive a good education. What is the price to be paid with that many students not receiving a good education? More of the same in the inner cities. Bolick writes that Spellings could provide good education for these students quickly by making LA Schools an example to the nation. Will she do it?
Read previous articles on Educational Issues.
Copyright article 2006 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.
