Six weeks remained in the term, but rather than looking forward to vacation, 31,300 students of the Richmond, Calif., school district merely wanted the class time they were owed. The debt-ridden district had declared itself bankrupt, and administrators ordered its 52 schools to close their doors on April 30. While parents searched for alternative classroom space, students picketed in protest.
The students -- and their families -- were victims of a fumbled, four-year experiment to give Richmond, a working-class area northeast of San Francisco, a system based on the principle of choice that was endorsed by George Bush in his education...
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