Siobhan Sheils writes in an editorial in the Daily News (Be Our Guest) that it’s smart for upscale nabes like Park Slope to think about charter school. Let the discussion begin. Here’s an excerpt.

Leafy Park Slope, Brooklyn, full of strollers, dogs and pricey
stores, is the kind of place where you’d expect to find quality public
schools. So it might surprise you to learn that kids in District 15,
which includes Park Slope and surrounding neighborhoods, might be
better served by schools in places like the South Bronx or Harlem.

Both
of those neighborhoods feature charter schools that outperformed the
vast majority of schools in District 15 during the 2005-2006 year. KIPP
Academy in the Bronx outscored 13 of the 14 middle schools in District
15. In math, Harlem Village Academy also outperformed all but one of
those schools. Ten District 15 schools had passing rates that were far
below 50% in both subjects.

Families in Park Slope out-earn
those in the South Bronx and Harlem by more than 50%. So why don’t the
kids out-learn, or at least keep pace with, their counterparts who
attend quality charter schools in low-income neighborhoods?

That,
perhaps, is what Dan Rubenstein and Luyen Chou wanted to know – and may
explain why the two educators wrote a proposal to start Brooklyn
Prospect Charter School, which they hope to open in fall 2009.