I have worked through some of these types of issues on a personal level. I too believe that all students should have tons of opportunity and I also believe that if a parent makes a choice - whether that be a charter, private or other school - you are naturally going to have a more involved parent and more involved parents lead to more involved students and more involved students are more successful. I wish there was a way to duplicate that success for kids whose parents either don't have the ability too or choose not to make the educational choices for their children.
Having said that, I completely disagree with the fairness argument. It is not fair that everyone gets the same - we have that now with NCLB and that is inherently unfair because kids that are not going to get to the bubble are dismissed as well as those that are above the bubble.
What is fair is that everyone gets what they need and if my kid or any kid needs an accelerated curriculum, enrichment or more challenging curriculum, or learning in an enviroment with only his academic peers, so that he can learn work ethic, responsibility, study skills, goal setting, problem solving and sacrifice, then that is what is fair for him.
