You're correct about private schools not taking special needs children. I love the way some parents think a private elementary is excellent and yet, get this, their children must take a test (and score well) to get in. As a teacher, I know that this is simply skewing the numbers so as to prevent challenging students from entering through those pricey doors.

However, you are quite wrong about special education students sucking up money from public schools. The mandates ensuring ALL children a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) are federal law. IDEA and NCLB are federal mandates. So, let me know (I'm just a special ed teacher): Where are the federal dollars ensuring that all interventions can be supported by funding? The federal government has never picked up more than about 18% of the cost of special education despite the federal mandates.

You wrote:

"Another thing about Special Ed

Most people don't realize that if a student has a severe disability and his or her zoned school cannot provide the appropriate learning environment, the school system has to pay for that child to attend a private, specialized school. Some private schools know and play this game well."

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No, this is really a game parents play. Many parents want a particular type of special education program NOT mandated under FAPE. They then sue their local school board claiming ineffective instruction. This avenue of legal redress has changed since 2007 and it is harder to fight a school district's educational plan as a parent.

Howver, IF a school clearly lacks the means to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education for the severely disabled student, the parent can send their child to a private school- but not just any private school. This school must have the ability to meet the educational needs of the child. In my experience, most parents who have sought out this option were parents of Autistic children. This area of special education is finally catching up in public school systems. Schools now are providing extensive supports in speech and occupational therapy and are setting up appropriate behavioral interventions. This has meant that parents are not able to sue as easily under FAPE.

My elder daughter is in a progressive public school that received an F from the board of ed last year. This stuff is very real for me and mine. (Younger daughter in private preschool)

Her school, which is chock full of ESL kids and kids with learning challenges, struggles against the system and "teaching to the test."

My kid is lucky to be naturally curious, to have parents who speak in the language the classes are taught, who lives in a home full of books and can get all the homework help she needs. She'll likely do fine, wherever she is.

I can't fault any other parents in my neighborhood for choosing private or home schooling, or carting their kids to the fancier public schools in "better" neighborhoods. But I am inordinately grateful for the families that make the investment to put their kids in our neighborhood school and to get involved.

And for what it's worth, I believe it's a great school. It could use improvement, for sure, but it's the system I find really shitty.

Because I always check for her name first. I was wondering where she's been, but I guess writing a book-length version of the article on learning to love the public schools is a pretty good trade.

It is wonderful to find that a Mother can still catch fire, in

spite of her elitist surroundings, background, and education.

Public schools can not be saved by volunteers unless these

same volunteers tackle the assault launched by Government

against the public schools. I am an 80 year old grandmother

who volunteers at public high schools - - - in defiance of the

push back by the "system". The students are fine, no different

from students forty and fifty years ago in their aspirations

and, yes, their lethargy! No matter what you pay for "private" schools you will always have individual results. That is how we got so many crooked bankers, immoral CEO's and really bad public

officials.

Flame on, I applaud your efforts.

I also visit a few Christian schools.

Guess where kids are more alert? Better behaved? More engaged?

Not the latter.

My point is that there are many, many wonderful public schools.

I'm surprised that Ms. Reiter didn't query Ms. Loh about the Right's animosity for public schools. If the Right had their way, they'd burn down public education, along with Social Security and Medicare. That the Right hates public education is reason enough to "save" it, since the Right is wrong about nearly everything.

First of all, the poster raising hell because middle-class parents are heading for the cities and staying is being ridiculous. A lot of us *are* the "original inhabitants" of the cities-- our families just left the cities for the suburbs, and we have decided to come back and stay for the duration, this time.

Next, I think these overwrought concerns about "diversity" in private schools are overblown. I recognize the civic value of learning to get along with your fellow Americans, who come from all different sorts of background. However, I remember high school, and I remember my parents being concerned that I got over my problems with math, learned to write well, and develop a decent work ethic, which up until then had been lacking. At no time do I remember them worrying, "but he's not going to school with enough African-Americans and Latinos!" You know what? That was a secondary issue. Let's not confuse our political/civic priorities with our academic ones.

I'm hoping this works out for Sandra Loh. We really do need to revitalize our urban schools. It's sort of sad, however, that schools need so much "involvement" and "activism" from parents to ensure that the school system can fulfill basic academic needs and get access to things like musical instruments and music instructors. That's what we pay our taxes for.

This is a subject that I think about often. I have a 14 year old in the 8th grade at a public high school in a city in Ohio. (Yes, in this city, High School is grade 7th-12th) The population is demographically 55% white and 45% black. But the public school population is 75% black and 20% white and 5% "other". White people are not sending their kids to public school. They have the majority vote in the city, yet do not use the school system. So most every time a bond levy comes up, they vote it down. Then the school system has no money and 100 year old school buildings that they have no money to fix and they start to fall apart. Then the white people say, "Oh look at that school system! It is falling apart! They have terrible test scores! And it's full of 'Minorities'! It's a good thing I send Madison to Country Day!"

I know that in smaller towns and in the countryside people have no clue what I'm talking about. I grew up in the country and went to whatever school I was zoned to. You didn't think about it for a minute. There were no private schools. But in the cities it is really like this. Los Angeles' public schools are about 90% Black and Latino demographically. New York's are about the same. Every major city has the exact same issue. And it's because the majority (a.k.a. white people) pulled their kids out of the schools about 30-40 years ago. What that essentially means is that schools are for the most part still segegrated. The majority of my city's public schools are almost 100% Black demographically and almost 100% Free/Reduced Lunch. There are a few magnet schools that have a good reputation. There is one good neighborhood elementary school where my kid went. It's located in a fairly well-off area, but somehow the neighborhood didn't abandon it when bussing started and as a result it thrives today. Now, she goes to a magnet high school, where you have to score a certain score on the Terra Nova Test to get in. If it weren't for that High School, I'm not sure where I would send her. Her neighborhood high school is rated Academic Emergency.