Response from Linday Sturman

My friend Linday Sturman, one of the founders of the Larchmont Schools in LA (see http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/renaissance-weekend.html), responded to my last email:

 

RE: the public private schools article.

Our state and federal school funding, in my opinion, does nothing to encourage diverse, mixed income (mixed SES) schools.  Most funding for low income kids does not follow them to an affluent school, so schools have no incentive to recruit a diverse population.  Most programs for to serve low income students are only open to schools that are 40%, 50%, 70% low income (which in our country often means non-white). 

If all these funding streams followed the child, then affluent schools would have an incentive to recruit kids, who would bring more money.

As it stands, schools that are diverse are the MOST penalized by the system -- they aren't eligible for most funding, but they also have a smaller fundraising base to make up the difference. 

I would reverse it -- and reward schools for serving an ethnically and economically diverse student body.