And since most of the kids who go to the city schools in D.C. are black, one must therefore conclude that obama and the democrats are racist.

Here is highlight of the article:Before it was unceremoniously kneecapped by the White House and Congressional Democrats in 2009, the program had established a track record of improving reading scores, dramatically lifting graduation rates, and winning strong parental satisfaction. Oh, and it achieved all of this success at roughly one-fourth the cost of per-pupil public school spending. Let me repeat that: The DCOSP nearly doubled the high school graduation rate of its students (compared to their public school peers -- 91 percent vs. 55 percent) at a fraction of the cost

So much for the assetion that is the democrats who really look out for blacks and it is the R's who are racist.

This was scuttled a couple of years back by the Democrats and their buddies in the teacher's union.

The problem with the program is that it proves what Republicans have been saying all along--that increasing spending isn't going to help the public education system in this country. Changing the way it's run will. And that means doing away with union influence, cutting administrative costs, and focusing on the kids, not the teachers.

I'm in California now and I can tell you--our kids were two years ahead of their cohorts in CA. True, all our schools were exemplary, but I've never seen public schools so averse to even showing up. My son had the whole month of December off and will now have the whole month of March off. They get two weeks off for Spring Break and 3 weeks off for Christmas, er, Winter Break. They get about every third Monday off for one holiday, teacher workday, or another. They get "early release" every Wednesday (out an hour earlier) and my high school sophomore gets out at noon about every third Friday as well. It's absurd. And it's obviously run this way for the teachers--not the kids. I'm lining up private schools as fast as I can.

http://ies.ed.gov/nc...df/20104018.pdf
I thought these two bullets were interesting
• There is no conclusive evidence that the OSP affected student achievement. On average, after at least four years students who were offered (or used) scholarships had reading and math test scores that were statistically similar to those who were not offered scholarships (figure ES-2). The same pattern of results holds for students who applied from schools in need of improvement (SINI), the group Congress designated as the highest priority for the Program. Although some other subgroups of students appeared to have higher levels of reading achievement if they were offered or used a scholarship, those findings could be due to chance. They should be interpreted with caution since the results were no longer significant after applying a statistical test to account for multiple comparisons of treatment and control group members across the subgroups.
• The Program significantly improved students’ chances of graduating from high school. Although students may not have raised their test scores in reading and math as a result of the OSP, they graduated at higher rates. The offer of an OSP scholarship raised students’ probability of completing high school by 12 percentage points overall (figure ES-3). The graduation rate based on parent-provided information was 82 percent for the treatment group compared to 70 percent for the control group. The offer of a scholarship improved the graduation prospects by 13 percentage points for the high priority group of students from schools designated SINI in 2003-05 (79 percent graduation rate for the treatment group versus 66 percent for the control group).

The argument against is instead of shipping the kids out of their crappy schools in to better schools, fix the crappy schools.

News flash: the public school system and their union bosses have been saying that for several decades and have spent billions of our tax dollars with almost across the board failure. You surely also note that we have another example of the democrat party caving to the unions while patronizing the black community.

There will be no educational excellence, do you hear me? None, zip, nada...

sURE THERE WILL--FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A CRAP--IT'S CALLED SELF DETERMINATION...

"Do you hate Steel?"

"I don't hate him...I just feel better when he's not around."

--Charles Bukowski

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

There will be no educational excellence, do you hear me? None, zip, nada...

sURE THERE WILL--FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A CRAP--IT'S CALLED SELF DETERMINATION...

"Do you hate Steel?"

"I don't hate him...I just feel better when he's not around."

--Charles Bukowski

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

There will be no educational excellence, do you hear me? None, zip, nada...

sURE THERE WILL--FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A CRAP--IT'S CALLED SELF DETERMINATION...

"Do you hate Steel?"

"I don't hate him...I just feel better when he's not around."

--Charles Bukowski

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

There will be no educational excellence, do you hear me? None, zip, nada...

sURE THERE WILL--FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A CRAP--IT'S CALLED SELF DETERMINATION...

"Do you hate Steel?"

"I don't hate him...I just feel better when he's not around."

--Charles Bukowski

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

"Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor implied. If you could repeat previously discredited memes or steer the conversation into irrelevant, off topic discussions, it would be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous." Barry Ritholtz

News flash: the public school system and their union bosses have been saying that for several decades and have spent billions of our tax dollars with almost across the board failure. You surely also note that we have another example of the democrat party caving to the unions while patronizing the black community.

So, if unions are the problem everywhere else, how do explain Texas' poor public schools?

"Duty then is the most sublime word in the English language. You should do your duty in all things. You can never do more, you should never wish to do less." - Robert E. Lee

So, if unions are the problem everywhere else, how do explain Texas' poor public schools?

When I first found this website and started posted over at the main board, I was told by some of your own posters that it was because of the massive influx of poor Hispanics flooding into the state from Mexico. That those children were already wayyyyyyyyy behind before they got here and that their test scores bring down the test scores of the state as a whole.

Dont know how true it is,.......but that IS what I was told .

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."