<p>“An example: at my crappy public middle school, no classes were allowed to be separated by ability because students who weren’t in the top level might “feel bad.” Even though at the time I had scored 700 in CR on the SATs, I had to sit in class with students who were still figuring out what an apostrophe was and reading “MC Higgins the Great” for three months. Halfway through the year they created one class separated by levels, reading, and it was the joy of my day–we read The Grapes of Wrath, Things Fall Apart, 1984, etc.”</p>
<p>Coming from a public high school, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Luckily, the only subject this is really done with is English. Unlike you, however, I go to school in an affluent, suburban part of the country.</p>
<p>Anyways, the point I’m trying to make is that nearly any public school is going to have issues accommodating everybody. While money may be able to get somebody into a great private school, it doesn’t really have any effect otherwise. I could see there being social and home issues holding people from low-income households back, but school isn’t one of those issues.</p>