Opinion
School Choice & Charters Opinion

Single-Gender Offerings Cut in S.C.

By Richard Whitmire — November 30, 2010 1 min read
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South Carolina is running the nation’s biggest experiment in single-gender classes, and a recent survey confirms that those offerings are popular with parents.

Here’s the report. And here’s the press release.

And yet, the number of offerings has dropped from 214 to 125 over the past two years -- the result of slimmer school budgets, say educators there.

Still, this raises the question I’ve raised before: what’s the backup plan?

Budget cuts aren’t the only reason these program may disappear. Schools that only see satisfied parents -- but no academic gains -- will also be under pressure to cut the programs. If this is the best-and-only offering we have for dealing with the boy troubles, what happens if these programs start to disappear?

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