The Real Education Crisis

Page Six goes where the Ideas Festival dares not tread declining attainment for America's wealthiest children: "In the past, it wasn’t unusual for as many as seven students to be accepted through early admission to the top Ivy League institution, says a guidance counselor there. But for the first time in memory, inside sources say, no Dalton students will be shipping off to Harvard come fall. And some parents—who shell out $31,200 a year for their kids’ private school education—are pissed." I believe I was actually one of eight members of the Dalton Class of 1999 who wound up in the Harvard Class of 2003. Apparently fairness is to blame for causing the problem:

As a result, it seems private schools are feeling the heat more than their public counterparts. “The Ivies are reaching out for a diverse economic background—even home-schooled students are becoming more of a thing,” says one guidance counselor at a private school in Manhattan. “They are interested in first-generation college kids, and few privates have that. The Ivies are still good to legacies [children of alumni] if their alums have been good to them. But it’s getting harder for private school students because it’s getting fairer for the rest of the world.”

Tragic. Kevin Carey has more.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/the-real-education-crisis/49040/