According to Clint Bolick, school districts, like the Los Angeles Unified School Monster, are finding ways to skirt the school choice provision under No Child Left Behind. Under NCLB, a Title I school that does not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the same subject for two or more consecutive years must offer parents the choice to transfer to another school. School districts must notify parents that they have the option to transfer their child.
Bolick points out many parents with children in Monster schools 1) did not know that their school was failing 2) did not receive notification from the school district that they have the option to transfer their child to another school, and 3) when presented with the option, expressed a desire to transfer their child to another school. Bolick, as president of the Alliance for School Choice, is obligated to mention that students cannot (but should be allowed to) transfer to a private school.
I have little doubt that the Monster failed to inform parents of their right to transfer their child. For obvious reasons, school districts avoid the subject of choice as much as possible. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is frying bigger fish, i.e., NCLB’s teacher quality and performance measurement issues, to focus on choice.
Recently, Spellings threatened to withhold federal funds from districts that do not abide by the NCLB law. Let’s be honest. She is not going to do it. She is a softy. If she were to do what needed to be done, she would withhold all federal funds from public schools and eliminate the Department of Education.
But that is a totally different subject altogether.
But that is a totally different subject.
