To the editors:
But this experiment in democratic decision making is already threatened in three major ways:
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One of the most important early results of the work of the local school councils is the change in student attitudes. At one of the rallies, Steven Moody gives an indication of how students in many schools are beginning to feel, “I love my high school. If Carver is closed, I’ll have to get my diploma from somewhere else. I want to graduate from Carver next year.”
The demonstrators condemned the planned closings as unfair, unnecessary and even dangerous in cases where students would be forced to cross street-gang boundaries.
It does not make sense in Chicago to talk about vouchers. There’s no evidence anywhere in the country to show that with vouchers the poor children, who now get the worst education, would then get education equal to what children in wealthy suburbs get. The evidence cited in “Pick-a-School” and in our sources shows that with the choice systems now in operation only the best, easily educated students are welcomed into parochial and private schools, leaving the neighborhood schools even worse off without their natural student leaders.
(Chicago Area)
