But our country will never be able to achieve this commitment until we open up choice and competition in our inner-city schools. The majority of children in our inner cities are not learning. Test scores are abysmal, graduation rates are atrocious, and overall performance is so low that many schools have been shut down altogether. Entire school districts have been taken over by state boards of education. This collapse of public education is devastating to urban communities and the people who live there.
Families refuse to purchase homes in neighborhoods where schools are failing.
The stability of inner-city communities, like that of the suburbs, is determined by their ability to attract strong families. Communities that cannot offer families good schools are condemned to failure and deterioration. What happens to the children is even worse. When children can't read or do even elementary math, they are doomed in a 21st-century economy. We are further marginalizing an entire community that is already socially and economically isolated.