A response to the Diane Ravitch’s commentary, "Help Poor Kids, Not Poor Schools,"

by
Alex Molnar

Center for Education Research, Analysis, and Innovation
School of Education
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
PO Box 413
Milwaukee WI 53201
414-229-2716

May 15, 2000

CERAI-00-16

A response to the DianeRavitch’s commentary, "Help Poor Kids, Not Poor Schools," in the WallStreet Journal

May 15, 2000

To the Editor:

I read with interest DianeRavitch’s May 10 commentary "Help Poor Kids, Not Poor Schools."

Ms. Ravitch rehashes theposition put forward in 1985 by the Reagan administration Department ofEducation in "Justice and Excellence: The Case for Choice in ChapterI." The idea is appealingly simple: just distribute Title I money to poorparents and they will find high quality schools and enroll their children inthem.

To make her case Mr.Ravitch must remain innocent of any knowledge of or interest in the manifoldpractical obstacles that would face poor parents trying to find and transporttheir children to the under-utilized high performing schools she conjures up.She must also ignore the reality of American school demographics in favor of afiction: that our nation’s high quality schools have plenty of empty seats.Clearly she has never visited Milwaukee where I live

Finally, Ravitch must fallback on that hoary old chestnut of the voucher debate, the redoubtable collegePell Grant program. The Pell Grant program provides federal assistance tolow-income, post-secondary students. Apparently finding no difference betweenk-12 students and college-age adults, Ms. Ravitch also appears never to haveheard about the thousands of students ripped off by unscrupulous private schooloperators. These "entrepreneurs" set up Pell Grant mills to receivethe funds, take student Pell Grant money, provide shoddy or non-existenteducational programs, and have a nasty habit of heading out of town just aheadof the prosecutor -- leaving their students worse off than before.

Can the Title I program beimproved? Sure it can. The so-called "pull-out" programs, forexample, were a disgrace. Unfortunately, Ms. Ravitch’s warmed-over nostrumsoffer no useful guidance – just election year theology.

Alex Molnar