In the spring of 1999, state legislators in Pennsylvania , Texas , New Mexico , and Arizona also considered full choice programs for low-income and low performing students in traditional public schools, but were not successful. In Milwaukee and Cleveland decades of failure and lost years of learning prompted the pilot programs. In Florida, state policymakers agreed that schools should be given a firm set of incentives and consequences for improving, or risk losing their students. Studies of the Milwaukee and Cleveland programs are encouraging and justify continued expansion of the programs. More important, however, is that these programs work to instill institutional incentives for school improvement and they consider every child's education an uncompromising priority.
Some opponents call the concept of choice radical.
They say the best children will leave failing schools, leaving the worst behind. Minority children are the ones doing the worst in public schools. But parents have no money for alternatives. The fact is that anytime families with money have been in bad situations, they've left for the suburbs, or chosen private or home schooling. Now there is a growing chorus of Americans that are saying that schools should work for the privilege of educating their children.