Mr. President, Please: Help Spread Schools that Work

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 "The central education challenge confronting us involves the children of the poor," begins an open letter to President Obama from education innovator and nuPOLIS partner Doug Ross. "No major city seems able to educate its poor children at levels comparable with middle-class suburban systems."

But there is also hopeful news, contends Ross in an essay in the Progressive Policy Institute's 2009 book, Memos to the new President: "A growing number of public, general-admission high schools in big cities across America have developed new school designs that produce high-school graduation and college-enrollment rates equal to those found in affluent suburban settings."

But political opposition is preventing the spread of these types of schools, and Ross asks Obama to provide presidential leadership to overcome the barriers.