What is Loh's solution for an inner city family struggling for access to a quality education with a dysfunctional school board? I am liberal in every aspect but this notion that public school education is the only good way to educate everyone doesn't gel with me. Actually as a liberal, I feel public school system can be just as elitist. If it seems affordable ,it is only because of the hidden costs - our taxes going into the system. And the volunteer thing? What about the average single mom forced to work two jobs to educate her kids? Do you think she has the energy to force change in her school? This type of seeking change works well for middle class functional communities. But it has not done anything for the inner city over many years despite 8 years of Democratic administration in the 90s. Also I see quite a few bad school boards run by both Democrats and Republicans.

As a liberal, I find many public schools that offend my liberal values (evolution controversy, anyone?). So public schools are definitely flawed at both ends of the ideology spectrum.

I have seen studies pooh poohing vouchers. But what harm is there? These studies mean nothing as there hasn't been a long enough and big enough alternative to come up with reliable conclusions. If you limit vouchers based on variable cost of adding a student to the local school then that should take care of rich people using vouchers to subsidize their private education. Poor people can qualify for higher grants though the formula can be made that a poor family would still find it economically beneficial to go to a public school. All proposals of universal healthcare support going to a private doctor. Why not treat public schooling as universal schooling? We can put restrictions on the private schools that take vouchers , such as maintaining a certain diversity in race and class and geography based on school size. This way, it doesn't become an easy cop out for parents seeking some elitist segregated private school.

I'm a public-school educated kid... in an urban school in the 80's when the GOP began pushing the "our schools are failing" claptrap. I tested in the 95% percentile on the SAT, but was only in the top 20% of my graduating class.

It saddens me to read that such a Democrat-voting block of public radio journalists assume that private schools are the only way to go. I hope that's an exaggeration for narrative effect (as other things in the interview are), but if we grant the GOP argument that only privately-owned schools have an incentive to do education right, we're in trouble.

I also want to point out that the majority of private schools are a crock. Most people think of the one or two star private schools when they're talking on the subject. But most private schools are rinky-dink operations opened by churches with an ax to grind. When I got to my English composition class at my Bible college -- where half the student body came from private schools -- less than 10% of the class had written a research paper before -- something my public high school covered my junior year.

Oh I get it. Get caught "in the updraft" of celebrity and then you can save the schools. Oh yeah sure. Or atleast write another book and make more money off of someone else's misery.

Until you people had kids nobody else freakin' mattered. Some of us have been trying to save public education for over 30 years while the GOP declared systematic war on our schools.

Sorry, my kid is out of school now and I don't crusade anymore. You Gen X, Y, and Z'ers have all the answers (just ask them!), so you save the schools - the bears - the pandas - and the historical, drafty buildings. Good luck.

I am a magnet school parent. I have been for four years. My son just started fourth grade yesterday. Our school is a magnet and one of the best in our big, urban district (which currently lacks accreditation and was taken over by the state). I am getting burned out on fighting the good fight. I had so much more enthusiasm and patience for this a few years ago. (Three years ago, I ambitiously raised $70,000 to build a new playground at our school.)

Some days I wish I could swipe the Visa and be done with it. At my school, we had 98 fifth graders enrolled. One teacher in place. District wouldn't let the school hire two teachers until the kids showed up. So now we have two rooms full of fifth graders with no teachers. The district launched a huge campaign to get kids to school the first day. I think this goes both ways. You want the kids there the first day, then you need to have classrooms and teachers ready for them! This is what drives me nuts. We seem to get in our own way more than necessary. I have no idea why we need to wait for kids to have teachers in place. This logic is why parents run screaming from the schools. I am trying to find the strength to fight. Friends don't understand why I stay in such a flawed system (and my kids are adopted out of foster care, so I am working with two flawed systems). I am so glad someone else is fighting too. And reminding me of why all this can be a great thing in the end.

Thanks Sandra.

I grew up in California in a medium sized college town and was 11 years old when Prop 13 passed. There was a clear difference between the education I received and that which my older siblings received. It was still decent, but all of the extras were gone. People didn't want to pay taxes to support the schools and now California is ranked among the worst states in education.

Now I live in a suburb of a relatively depressed city in upstate NY and my husband and I both have siblings who live in the Bay Area -- one in Oakland and one in Burlingame. I have a child who is blind and my bay area living sibling has a child who is autistic. My other sibling spent her child's entire 4th year researching all the schools in the East Bay before deciding on a private school. People complain all the time about NY state taxes and how high the school taxes are, but all 3 of my kids, including my disabled child, all go to unbelievably fantastic public schools. I simply cannot believe all the resources these kids have -- instrumental music, extensive art, gifted programs, every possible service for my blind child (a teacher for the visually impaired, OT, PT, special equipment, team meetings on a monthly basis to make sure that his needs are being met since he is both blind and gifted, etc. etc.) My sibling with the autistic child whose home is worth about 5 times what our home is worth pays hardly ANY school taxes and has had a hell of a time getting proper services for his disabled child -- they pay for their own speech therapist, they have had to go to court (and lost), etc. etc. It tooks months and months of my other sister's time to finally get her kid enrolled in a private school that is costing her 11K since she got some financial aid.

Here we all are -- basically all making the same amount of money, same educational level ourselves, all living in what are standard middle class neighborshoods for our regions, and where we live has made a dramatic difference in the education of our kids. They are stressed out emotionally and financially, they have to battle for what their kids need, etc. etc. I just plop my kids on the bus and they end up at fantastic, enriching, wonderful schools (the local high school has been ranked as high as 5th in the nation, and is consistently in the top 50 of public schools in the nation). And, my disabled child gets an amazing amazing amount of resources and support.

I have been quite startled over the years by the contrast that we've seen between our families -- that are essentially the same, except for the states we live in -- and the education that our kids are receiving.