Alternative Public School Systems

The author asserts that American public education suffers from "pervasive and persistent" inefficiency, particularly in the schools provided for Negro and other underprivileged children. After discussing the obstacles to "effective, nonracially constrained" education, the author proposes a strategy for providing excellent education in ghetto schools in conjunction with efforts to bring about effective school desegregation. Because the present patterns of public school organization are themselves a principal factor in inhibiting efforts to improve the quality of education,it will be necessary, he contends, to find "realistic, aggressive, and viable competitors"to the present public schools. The paper concludes with a discussion of alternatives to existing urban public school systems, including such possibilities as industrial demonstration schools and schools operated by the Department of Defense.