new data on african americans and vouchers

a new poll by BET and CBS shows that just one in ten of those polled believes that vouchers "would do the most to make sure African American children receive a good education."

i post this with a grain of salt, mainly because the cbsnews.com story doesn't specify how the question was worded. it looks like respondents were given a number of options and asked which was the best for black kids, including making sure schools are more socioeconomically integrated (which yielded 44 percent) and more funding to schools (40 percent). that doesn't mean that more than 10 percent of respondents don't support vouchers as one method of school reform.

that said, i think the findings are good. they mean that people understand that it's not just being "trapped" in your neighborhood school that's the problem. the problem is that poor kids go to poor schools.

the allure of vouchers is the idea that poor parents could send their kids to rich schools. but the reality is that while that may occur for a handful of kids, that's not what vouchers are all about. and it's heartening that people realize that.