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STONEWALLING SCHOOL CHOICE IN MARYLAND
By Jeanne Allen, July 2002
Letter to the Editor submitted to The Baltimore Sun
The stonewalling goes on in Maryland. A few weeks ago the reports were about Howard and Montgomery counties' attempts to subvert the parent-empowering choice provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now Baltimore has joined the act.
"Schools setting limits on transfers," (7/10) reported there are 30,000 students in Baltimore attending schools designated by the state as failing. Of these, 194 will be permitted to transfer to a better-performing school by Baltimore school officials – roughly six-tenths of a percent of those eligible. It is once again apparent that public school bureaucracies are more concerned with undermining a law that threatens their monopoly than with helping children.
Congress’s intent for the No Child Left Behind Act was clear: Provide students in chronically failing schools with the greatest possible opportunity to attend schools that work. However, it left the implementation of the new choice options to individual school districts, trusting that they would meet the letter and spirit of the law. Baltimore and other Maryland counties have betrayed that trust.
Ultimately, the No Child Left Behind Act cannot live up to its name if entrenched education bureaucracies violate its spirit at every turn. The purpose was to publicly identify schools that do not work and then provide immediate relief for the children whose education is crippled by the failure of their assigned schools. The behavior of some Maryland districts makes clear how impervious most systems are to the kind of widespread change and improvement that is necessary to ensure every child receives an excellent education. Maybe it’s time people began to circumvent the districts and learn for themselves what is possible.
Parents and schools wanting to know more about their rights under the new federal law can go to our page No Child Left Behind: The New Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
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Jeanne Allen is president of the Center for Education Reform in Washington, D.C. The Center for Education Reform is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization providing support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For further information, please call (202) 822-9000.