Reply #294: Good point. That's why I am a class warrior regarding the schools.

[recidivist]

And as a class warrior, I favor full school choice, including vouchers.

Put aside the enormous problems of struggling urban schools for a moment. Consider the situation in "good" neighborhoods or out in the leafy suburbs. Even there, it's not what it should be.

I want public schools that offer every child a chance to excel. By that I don't mean getting constant ego reinforcement and easy A's in a dumbed down curriculum; I mean being exposed to a rigorous academic curriculum that gives kids with superior energy, intelligence, and drive a reasonable chance of competing with the children of the elites, who routinely provide academically rigorous schooling in pricey prep schools.

There are exceptions, but in most places the public schools don't seem terribly interested in challenging students at that level. They tend to settle for mediocrity. Meanwhile, academically oriented parents increasingly vote with their feet.

Perhaps the best -- certainly the most famous -- model of what I would like to see is the New York City public school system in the 1920's and 30's. It wasn't perfect, and there are many things we'd do differently today, but it did create institutions and practices that allowed kids from desperately poor immigrant backgrounds (at that point in time, disproportionately Jewish) to compete academically with the silver-spoon set.

There are very few urban or suburban public school systems that offer that kind of opportunity today. The extremely gifted or exceptionally motivated kids can still do well, but in most places the system doesn't push them to excel.

The public schools can do it if they want, but the powers that be will have to accept that academic rigor is inherently stratifying. All children are precious but some children do better in school than others. A system that embraces academic rigor will have to accept a much higher level of tracking and ability grouping than is common today. If public schools find that politically impossible, the academically serious parents will continue to opt out.