School transfer slots wasted

Only 200 of the 175,000 eligible Chicago students transferred to a better neighborhood school this year under the No Child Left Behind Act--a statistic that points to a glaring shortfall in reforms that promised more choice to kids in failing schools.

Allowing students to transfer from a failing school to a better one was to be a cornerstone of the federal education reforms passed two years ago.

But new numbers from the Chicago Public Schools show that few children actually transfer. Fewer than half of those who won a lottery for the right to transfer did so.

"It's frustrating for us," said Xavier Botana, director of the No Child Left Behind programs for Chicago Public Schools......
........
The reason hundreds didn't show is no mystery, school leaders say.

Families often change their minds when faced with the logistics of getting their child to a school miles away from home--commutes that can take more than an hour by car or public transportation. This grows even more complicated if siblings don't win a transfer and must stay at their neighborhood school.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0411300193nov30,1,5525452.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Lets focus on making all schools good. That might require us to even out the distribution of funding between rich school districts and poor school districts though. Hmmm, I wonder if that will fly.

How on earth could they expect anything BUT??.. My own youngest went to an out-of-area school (because of the gifted program), and it was a P.I.T.A. to have to take him to school every day and go pick him up, as we drove past about 4 schools, but we had the ability to do it..

A single Mom with 2 jobs, and sketchy transporatation will never be able to handle it..and then do we expect the kids to get themselves there on public transportation??

Best case..

FIX THE NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS, SO ALL THE KIDS CAN GET A DECENT EDUCATION