But a few small studies suggest that SLC kids are more than able to hold their own. The reading scores of students at the Hewlett-Packard school, for instance, were 43 percent higher than those of other local public school kids. Further, countless studies have linked student success to the amount of parental involvement in the school, and there's no doubt that having schools at the workplace gets parents more involved in their kids' schooling. SLCs offer financial benefits to school districts. When a corporation agrees to build and furnish a small school, it relieves some of the fiscal pressure on school districts, many of which are scrambling to add classrooms to cope with increasing enrollments and demands that class sizes be reduced.
Corporations can reap financial rewards, too.
Naturally, putting a public school in the workplace can cause new tensions. Companies and school districts have battled over who is responsible for such small but crucial tasks as paying for and changing light bulbs. While an on-site school can make it easier for employers to hire, it also may make it more wrenching for them to fire troublesome or underperforming employees, because it means pulling their children out of the school. And while SLCs may strengthen the bonds of community in the workplace, they doubtlessly weaken them in neighborhoods. Still, many of those with children in SLCs have no doubt that the tensions and tradeoffs are worth it.