<p>My daughter attends an urban innercity school- it has the most national merit scholars of any public school in the state. Our states class sizes are among the largest in the country- our per pupil spending is among the lowest-but the teachers are strong- and community support is growing every day.</p>
<p>It is true that the student needs to be motivated to do well- however we are giving students "too many" choices- they need to have a certain level of education to succeed in life, and we are doing a grave disservice( I would so far as to say that I think social promotion in many cases is unethical) if we allow students to leave high school knowing that they don't have the skills to do so.</p>