Tom Friedman v Boston Globe

By Jim Stergios
May 27th, 2008

Tom Friedman refocuses from the flat world in which American school achievement is flat out flat, and thankfully gives us an antidote to today’s surprisingly skewed article in the Globe. On the Globe article, how about that headline - MATCH is an “elite” school? It is 70+ percent federal poverty and 90+ percent minority. Or how about conflating movement from the charter to the public school with drop-outs? Hmmm. Or that the public schools “lose” or “forfeit” money because of charters? And I thought that parents chose to send their kids to the MATCH which is a public charter school. All accepted on the basis of a lottery. Jamie Vaznis has done better work…

So back to Friedman, who writes about the scene at the lottery held by the SEED School of Maryland, which has to run a lottery because it gets 300+ applications for 80 seats. The lottery:

The families all crowded into the Notre Dame auditorium, clutching their lottery numbers like rosaries. On stage, there were two of those cages they use in church-sponsored bingo games. Each ping-pong ball bore the lottery number of a student applicant. One by one, a lottery volunteer would crank the bingo cage, a ping-pong ball would roll out…

Dawn Lewis, the head of the SEED Maryland school, noted that: “During the six or seven months of recruiting, we heard all the stories of all the problems these kids are confronting in their schools, and each time [parents] would tell us, ‘This kind of school is the answer — the thing this child needs to be successful.’”

Ms. Lewis said she’s seen people on crack walking their kids to school. “We had parents who came into our office who were clearly strung out,” she added. “They could not read or write, but they got themselves there and said, ‘I need help on this application’ for their son or daughter. Families do want the best for their children. If they have a chance, they don’t want their kids to inherit their problems. … These aspirations are so underserved.”

Two money quotes:

If you think that parents from the worst inner-city neighborhoods don’t aspire for something better for their kids, a lottery like this will dispel that illusion real fast.

There’s something wrong when so much of an American child’s future is riding on the bounce of a ping-pong ball.

If you don’t believe Tom F, or if you want to see for yourself, go to a MATCH charter lottery. I can assure you parents are not excited like that when their children get into one of Boston’s district high schools.