The Harlem Success Lottery

A nice WSJ editorial from last week about the Harlem Success lottery:

In an interview this week, Ms. Moskowitz described the naked emotions on display at such lotteries, which are a common method for deciding who gets to attend these independently run public schools. "I thought I knew a lot about school choice and ed reform," she said. "But until I'd done the lottery last year I didn't understand the desperation.

"Unlike their middle-class counterparts who can use real estate to determine where their kid is going to school, my exclusively black and Latino parents' only option is to go through this process. And literally, people are praying and shaking and hoping to get into a school."

---------------------- 

The Harlem Success Lottery
March 28, 2007; Page A16

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117505088223051316-search.html

If New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver isn't otherwise occupied, perhaps he could stop by the Harlem Success Academy in Upper Manhattan later today.

The public charter school, which opened last year, is holding an admissions lottery at 6 p.m. to fill 105 kindergarten slots for next year from the 500 or so families who've applied for them. Harlem Success was founded by Eva Moskowitz, a reform-minded Democrat who formerly served as a New York City Councilwoman specializing in education issues.