Ticket to learn

Education: Unencumbered by red tape, charter schools offer hope to the few students blessed enough to win entrance into them | Alisa Harris

Photo by Jefferson Siegel

It was part political rally, part pageantry at New York's biggest public charter school lottery on April 23. Arcs of blue and orange balloons soared over politicians rousing 5,000 parents—only a fraction of whom would win a slot at Harlem Success Academy, the school of their choice, that night—to demand educational choice as a right.

Sheets of paper circulated so parents could write to their elected officials in support of charter schools. New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein invoked and Martin Luther King Jr., saying, "Parents don't want to know if it's public school or charter. They want to know, are my kids gonna get a shot at the American dream?" Malcolm Smith, New York State Senate Majority leader, said, "No one should tell you you can't have your child in that school where you think they'll get a better education. That is their right."