Our corporate society has produced an educational marketplace that forces public schools to compete merely to survive. Brevard County Schools (Florida) have allowed their constituents freedom of choice for over 20 years. The payoff: only 4.7 percent of Brevard County students attend private schools, compared with a national figure of 10.5 percent.…

Excellence in education might best be achieved if a wide variety of educational options were made available to satisfy the broad diversity of student needs, if parents were allowed free choice among schools, and if parents, teachers, and principals worked together to make each school responsive to its unique constituency. (PGD)

Ordered to desegregate, the Lowell (Massachusetts) Public Schools followed parent wishes and successfully provided a variety of magnet schools to encourage voluntary desegregation. Creation of these schools provided an opportunity for reviewing and improving the educational system as a whole. (PGD)

States that central to any efforts to improve urban schools is the relationship between the school managers and the teachers' union. Recommendations include creating learner-centered schools; focusing on improving the knowledge and skills of teachers; negotiating "Living Contracts"; and expanding school choice by making public schools…

Describes the Child Care and Development Block Grants provisions of Congress's Omnibus Reconciliation Act and the new options it will provide for funding Catholic education. Highlights the act's establishment of the primacy of parental choice and its avoidance of privileged preference for public school prekindergarten programs. (DMM)

A Florida county, under a federal court order to desegregate its schools, adopted a plan of controlled school choice approved by the federal court. The county was divided into three zones that roughly reflected the school system's racial composition. A computerized lottery, with provisions for keeping siblings together and attractive programs for…

Using the pooled 1998-2000 GSS data, this study examines what kinds of parents tend to select non-public schools for their children, a question that is fundamental but lacks direct, adequate answers in the literature. The results of logistic regression analysis show that religion, socio-economic status, age, nativity, number of children and region…

Horace Mann's goal of creating a common school that brings our society's children together in mutual respect and common learning need not be frustrated by residential segregation and geographical separation of the haves and have-nots. Massachusetts' new common school vision boasts a Metro Program for minority students, 80 magnet schools, and…

Argues that radical shifts in school governance arising from wider social, political, and economic relations challenge past notions of leadership and that the basics of socially just learning systems would be responsibility, recognition, and reciprocity. (Contains 62 references.) (MLF)

Traditionalists and progressives coexist warily in today's public schools, creating fragmented institutions with no common ethos. Letting teachers start their own schools may bring an end to the pedagogical holy wars. (Author)

Reviews recent federal court findings in three legal areas: the responsibility of public schools to reimburse tuition costs for special education students placed in appropriate private programs, parents' rights to sue for damages when special education placement is inadequate, and students' freedom to incorporate sexual innuendo into speeches.…

Presents results of a survey of school superintendents concerning impacts of school choice. Cites improved parent participation, interdistrict competition, educational opportunities for those of limited means, and identification of districts needing special services as reasons favoring parental choice. Reports that superintendents identified…

Describes an open enrollment program at Ohio County Schools (West Virginia) that allows parents to request transfers for their children. After a decade of experience, the program is judged as minimally disruptive. School choice seems to be based on child care considerations, rather than quality of education concerns. (MLH)

Outlines a plan for school attendance near family workplace. Advantages include wider school choice and a new approach to integrating schools. Some disadvantages include transportation and child care needs. (MD)

To help educators assess charter schools' effects on education, this article summarizes information from two studies: the U.S. Department of Education's ongoing National Study of Charter Schools and the Hudson Institute's 1996-97 Charter Schools in Action Project. Charter schools are growing in number, serving diverse student populations, and…