Our Best Hope

If you look closely at what is happening in New York City, you'll get a glimpse of what could be an exciting and promising future for public education. New Visions for Public Schools has put in place more than 30 of the most exciting nontraditional schools in the nation. The Carnegie Corporation of New York's Schools for a New Society is blazing trails in creating a different kind of high school. The city is establishing 200 small charter schools and might even create a "charter district" to support and oversee them. And the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given New York $51 million to fund 67 new, small thematic schools.