D.C. School Choice Program Offers Few Options

Families that choose to stay where they are can get free tutoring for their children under the No Child Left Behind law. But federal funding for the program, called Supplemental Educational Services, is limited, and parents are annoyed because the informational packets they received this month did not include a list of service providers. That list, compiled by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, will not be available until today, a day before the deadline.

But some parents and school activists caution that No Child Left Behind's by-the-numbers view of the school world is limited and overlooks hopeful things at some schools tagged as failing.

"That designation doesn't tell the whole story," said Cathy Reilly, chairwoman of SHAPPE, the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators. "People have a desire to invest in their neighborhoods even though the school may be in restructuring."

Ron Hampton, head of the Roosevelt High School PTA, said he and his wife talked about transferring their daughter a couple of years ago but then decided not to, even though the school is going through an overhaul mandated by the federal law. He said improvements in teaching and other programs, spurred in part by parental pressure, have been encouraging.

"We just figured the best thing to do was leave her there and struggle to try to get it fixed," he said. "In my opinion, it's coming along."

For Rhee, however, the dismal conditions -- academic and physical -- of the city's mainstream high schools are a particular source of angst. Although her message is usually one of unshakeable optimism about the future, she acknowledged during a recent panel discussion with aspiring young educators that the high schools keep her up at night.

To walk into virtually any of those schools, she said, is to "just be incredibly jarred into facing reality."

"It's astonishing to me, and completely unacceptable," Rhee said.

It also leaves parents and guardians such as Butler deeply frustrated. She's hoping to get Travis into School Without Walls or the technical theater program at Ellington, but it will be a long shot.

"I am very disappointed with the quality of his education," she said.