Some kids would respond to pressure with a knife or a gun. But Lawrence responded - in writing. He has grown in inner strength. It's a profound example of how we can teach children to respond to the challenge of the streets. Their leadership, which includes aggressive management of financial resources and continual student performance measurement, has resulted in a school that boasts a 97 percent average daily attendance rate and a majority of students at or above national grade-level average performance levels.
Similar results appear in math and vocabulary.
While public education remains mired in poor academic performance and financial crises, the private sector is proving that free market enterprises are vastly more efficient, more creative, and more responsive than government bureaucracies. Throughout the United States, elementary and secondary school enrollments continue to rise while many states struggle just to prevent an existing budget deficit from widening. Overall education expenditures are also sky-rocketing. About 30 million, or 65 percent of all students in 1989-90 attended schools in districts that had partnerships with business. Indeed, business has given enormous amounts of money to public education but has rarely known what, if any, good it has done.