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Education analyst: Public school parents should have right to be choosy

Education policy analyst Dan Lips says if there were more choice and competition in America's public education system, the country's high school graduation rates would not be so low in major U.S. cities.

A report issued by America's Promise Alliance finds 17 of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent. Only 1 in 4 students in Detroit's public schools graduated from high school, while 30 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and just 34 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland School District.
 
Lips, with the Washington, DC-based Heritage Foundation, says America cannot afford the continued failure of urban public schools, which imposes costs on students and society as a whole.
 
"We've seen systemic failure in America's city school systems largely because of a lack of choice in competition," Lips explains. "In many cities, these students don't have an opportunity to choose which school they go to. Instead, they are assigned to schools where teacher quality is lacking and the schools are often violent and dangerous."
 
He also believes there is a sure-fire way to help cut high school dropout rates. "Everyone who's concerned about the state of the performance of our nation's schools should support the idea that parents should be able to choose a safe and effective school for their children. That's the quickest way that we can address this problem, one child at a time, to ensure that kids get into quality schools," Lips points out.
 
Lips says, if anything, the Promise Alliance report will shine the spotlight on what Colin Powell calls America's high school dropout "catastrophe."

I agree completely.  Right now in Huntsville, AL if you are in certain school districts you may choose to send your children to a different school....  Quite honestly if you live in the poorer part of town you can opt to send your child to a different school than the one down the street.  And the city even takes care of transportation for that child. 

Now I am all about letting the parents decide.  However the problem is that this is not available to all students.  And it is strictly based on demographics of certain schools.  And I think that is wrong.

Open it up to allow any child to attend any school.  What you will soon find however is that your more prominent quality schools will be jammed packed with students while the other schools will be filled with dead air.  Now the school administration in the form of the city school board of education will need to pull qualified teachers into those other schools to bolster their educational standards.  This will take money and determinations.  If there is a criminal problem at a school than crack down and bounce it out on it's rear. 

There will be some taking back of responsibilty by the parents too...you got crime in your neighborhood...step up and get it taken care of.