SK> ->    The MIAMI HERALD published a detailed article describing the
SK> -> exodus of Fla. families from public schools to private academies
SK> -> (Mailander, 12/2).  "A broad, historic commitment to public
SK> -> schools has disappeared," said David Mathews, director of an
SK> -> Ohio-based research organization called The Kettering Foundation 
SK> and
SK> -> author of, "Is There A Public for Public School?"  "If people were
SK> -> abandoning the Constitution, there would be headlines across the
SK> -> country.  This is just as damaging."
    B.S.
    Schools are as much a service industry as fast-food restaurants are.  You 
keep your "customers" (parents) by serving them well and pleasing them.     
The Constitution is not a company, industry, or part of the economy that one 
is legally free to walk away from like one is perfectly free to choose 
McDonalds over Burger King.  David Mathews' comparison is nonsense.
SK> ->    The middle class is fleeing urban areas for suburban public
SK> -> school systems, but also for private schools.  "We are finding
SK> -> more families coming to us who haven't had an experience with
SK> -> private education before," said C. Skardon Bliss, executive
SK> -> secretary of the Florida Council of Independent Schools.  
    From the viewpoint of the inner-city districts, it makes no difference if 
the middle class flight takes the form of flight to private schools or to the 
suburbs.  Either way, the inner-city public schools end up more dominated by 
poor kids than ever before...and with fewer middle-class kids.
SK> -> "Every time there is a problem in public schools that makes the
SK> -> press, we get more interest in our schools," he said.
    Just as with other service industries.
    Ever see what happens to a restaurant that ends up in the paper for 
health-department citations?
SK> ->    Dade County schools, with a high number of Hispanic
SK> -> families, especially suffers from the fact that Hispanic
SK> -> families, more than other groups, prefers private schools.  
    It's not a "white flight" issue.
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