The education establishment is fond of attacking standardized tests and other measures as racist, claiming poor minority students simply can't achieve at high levels. Similarly, unions and others claim parental choice in education is racist. The worst students from broken, minority families would be left behind in failing public schools, while white students with active parents would be sent off to private schools in the suburbs. While there is no evidence of these trends, it is the establishment's claim that poor children can't learn that is rooted in bigotry. Students aren't dummies, they are trapped in a system that offers their families no choice.
Poor parents do care and sacrifice for their children.
Across the country, Catholic schools educate thousands of inner-city children whose parents have decided the public schools aren't serving the interests of their children. PRI is currently involved in a survey of Catholic school families in the Los Angeles archdiocese. Not all public schools and teachers are terrible. There are examples of success here in California and across the country. But if the system as a whole is to change, parents must be offered more choices.