Reprints permitted provided source is credited. Inner-city public schools are like a sinking ship, and the children on board need to be rescued before it's too late. Their schools are sinking fast and educational opportunities are being lost. Boilers are busted. Science and computer labs, if they even exist, are out of date.
Classrooms are crowded.
Drug and violence are commonplace. Many are opting out of the public schools altogether, with home schooling and applications for private school scholarships or tuition vouchers at record numbers. It is the growing support for school vouchers that has the political and public education establishments in a snit. They accuse poor parents of not having enough sense to know what's best for their own children and imply they are dupes of sinister forces out to destroy public schools. Washington, D.C.'s public school system is a good example.