Gov. Roy Barnes' education review panel is meeting again, attempting to draft more recommendations. And the Legislature, will convene in January with education issues atop its agenda. As a backdrop, the dam of resistance to equal education opportunity for the poor is crumbling.
Recent events establish school choice as an issue that has to be dealt with.
The survey, conducted by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute , found that almost 93 percent said special efforts were under way at their schools or neighborhing schools to improve test scores. One study by Paul Peterson of Harvard about programs in Day ton, New York and Washington showed that black students perform better when given a voucher than when in smaller classes. When students were given a voucher, their scores went up by a minimum of seven points on average, nine points in Washington. And reducing class size is enormously expensive pub lic scholarship programs may cost nothing extra, depending on how they're structured. He cited Supreme Court rulings making it constitutional for students to buy educational services at private schools if the money is sent to students first.