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Interesting commentary on vouchers versus school choice. Also the Innovative Schools Fund is worth reading more into...how are these different from Charters? How will they compete with Charters?

Many whites are taking advantage of the Michigan School Choice programs to move their children from more diverse schools to ones with fewer black students, The Detroit News reports. According to the most recent US census data, released on March 22, more than 184,000 African-Americans have moved out of Detroit in the past decade, most moving to the predominantly white suburban communities and the percentage of black students in those schools has jumped.

"we see a society built around profit and monetary gains where the major force driving educational institutions and their enrollees is money; pure profit and economic factors for the majority" "As a result of the uncontrollable turn that modern society has taken in terms of our emergence in a contemporary world built on profit maximization and survivalist economics and materialism, and propulsion toward a future of uncertainty for which we must gather wealth by any means necessary, the degree of competition among us in all walks of life and on all platforms has dramatically increased, and the workplace or proscenium upon which the dramatis personae of economic theories; firms, households, and governments must play, has turned into the battleground where technological advancement, increased knowledge, and the need for more specialized and skilled workers have driven us to commoditize learning opportunities in the form of training and education at an alarming rate. The rate of consumption which the market demands of education and training - knowledge and skills demand and consumption, has left schools, colleges, and universities competing among each other in desperate and even despicable ways, such that education in the form of mere training and book-scanning that the majority offers, has become just another "player" and card in Capitalism's game and race to the bottom of the consciousness funnel."

Does this article assume that all parents have the wherewithall and the resources to navigate this terrain?

An important read for the week on the role of school boards.

We shall see if their actions speak to their words

It is interesting that school board members are only "lukewarm" about certain "structural" changes such as school choice, charter schools, and year-round schooling.

An article providing an overview of how the AFT & the NEA are flawed due to self-interest. His only path to reform seems to be school choice.

For me, the most interesting aspect of this article is the continuing segregation of students in our schools by income. It also have a brief summary of what has happened in the Wake County Schools

Not entirely opposed, we might need to try it to see if it works...I recall reading how Justice Clarence Thomas chose to support public funding to private relgious schools (some might say unconstitutional) in order to create a way for African Americans to leave poorly performing urban public schools. Sometimes, you have to make a choice between a rock and a hard place.

Posted 03-Feb-2011: Empirical research on school boards