The Post and Courier in South Carolina discovered that school choice leaves the neediest students behind. Its investigation of North Charleston High School describes the flight of the most able and advantaged students to “choice” schools. The students with the greatest needs are left behind.
“The school, which should house a diverse group of 1,141 students from across its attendance zone, instead enrolled just 450 this year — and shrinking. Nearly 90 percent of its students are black in an area that’s more than a quarter white, and virtually all left are poor.”
The largest department in the school is special education.
This story, one of a five-part series, focuses on Maurice Williams, a freshman who nearly died because an infection in his brain that led to a blood clot. Maurice lives with his half-sister. No car, no job, little money, no choice. Left behind.
Competition has drained the top students out of North Charleston Hogh. Those who lacked the means are left behind. With fewer resources in a highly segregated school.
A situation caused by a law ironical led named No Child Left Behind. Call it a landmark in resegregating our public schools and leaving behing those children with the greatest disadvantages.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks, Obama …
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Yes, Obama appointed Arne Duncan and he is, was a disaster but do you really believe that it is ONLY Obama responsible for this fiasco? If memory is correct much of this began before his term of office although admittedly the situation has been exacerbated by the Duncan fiasco.
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Obama was and still is the man at the switch — he could have stopped and could still stop the education train wreck — but no, and he isn’t just asleep at the switch but pulled a switcheroo on us all.
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Diane –
Thank you for sharing this link – excellent reporting & writing makes this riveting reading – how can anyone who reads this not understand why choice is a problem?
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Magnet schools were the first failures in the school choice experiment.
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There are some good points, but what isn’t covered is that as students left, the school district and the leaders they put I place at the school did nothing to make it a viable choice.
So it’s as much about the district’s choice to abandon this once vibrant school. They sat on their hands.
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It’s impossible to “make a viable choice” of a school when it’s losing so much money. Are you comfortable in public money being used, either by charter or real public schools, for advertising? I’m sure not.
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You mean people in a given geographical area didn’t just sort themselves into even groups when given a “backpack voucher”?
No one could have predicted that.
It’s funny because “systems thinking” is all the rage in the private sector. Why isn’t there any of it in ed reform? Did they think the public school would stay the same? That “choice” would have absolutely no effect on existing schools? How reckless is it to just keep pushing forward with these ill-considered experiments where there is absolutely no consideration or thought given to the public system?
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Shouldn’t focus here too much on charters and magnets in this case as the NCLB transfers. Also in some schools in the area there is a lot of looking the other way when a student transfers in. This was happening unofficially before charters and magnets.
It’s also important to know that black and white kids abandoned Nort Charleston; it wasn’t just white flight. Same thing has happened to Burke High School in downtown Charleston, an almost totally black school of 300 on a campus for 1800 in an attendance area that is 70% white.
These schools are being targeted by some for an Achievement District. Won’t happen.
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I agree – I take back what I wrote above – School transfers were the first choice failures.
In my district, they practically threw transfers out the window like an old NYC ticker tape parade. Transfer students did not get bus services (so I guess that can be considered charter-lite – no busing, but lunch is on us if needed).
Many of the parents who went the transfer route are now at charters. Chasing the best choice must be tiring, but maybe it’s just inertia.
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I just love the stories about students up before five in the morning, so they can take their two or three buses and trains in order to get to their “school of choice.” And this is supposed to be better than resourcing local public schools appropriately? Instead we choose to let taxpayer money be drained from formerly viable schools that are then left with those students who either cannot afford or manage their own public transportation. How can anyone believe that there is a benign purpose behind school choice?
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For a nation that prides itself on equality, justice and opportunity, “choice” is allowing many children to be “left behind” in impoverished schools with few resources, and it is contrary to democratic principles. “Choice” is changing the demographics to make things worse for many poor students while it is increasing segregation and decreasing opportunity for the “leftovers.” This should be a DOJ case in my opinion. These poor students would be better served in a larger comprehensive high school where there could be more options and great efficiency of service. When we fragment students into smaller schools, there are fewer options for the remaining students and less efficiency in implementation. Parents need to realize this, especially in high schools as students prepare for their future.
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Still they had 1.56 million to give to a failed charter school and how many others also.
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Where I live, charter schools are so often touted as the way for poor students, in failing schools to get a better education. This summer, I have found that this is not the case all over America. My findings are more in line with the results of this article. In many areas, parents who are not impoverished are wanting their children out of pubic schools. leaving behind many of the very students the whole concept was supposed to help. This makes an already thin system, much more difficult to keep afloat/ We are leading in the direction of bankrupt school districts, closed school districts and an even more inferior system. The damage that will be done to this generation of children is abusive in my opinion. Time to get things back on track!
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