The transfer requirement, in which school systems must allow students to transfer from high-poverty schools that repeatedly fail, has created similar problems in the past for struggling school systems around the country, including New York City and suburban Atlanta. They and other systems have responded by limiting the number of students who are allowed to transfer.
In other systems, such as the District's, the number of failing schools is so overwhelming that few meaningful choices exist, unless students leave for charter or private schools.
In Prince George's, by contrast, there were decent choices and a school administration that thought it was important to comply as fully as possible with the law. The school system is using $1.3 million of its federal Title I funds on busing students to their new schools.
Prince Georges County Maryland:
More than half the county's schools failed to meet the No Child standards this year, up from last year, even though test scores rose modestly. Hite said the influx of transfers "adds a strain to those schools that are actually doing well," calling them "overwhelmed."
A growing chorus of education advocates shares the concern.
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