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If you think the Netherlands is homogeneous, you've never been outside the Canal Ring in Amsterdam. The foreign born population in a lot of European countries is comparable to many US states, and since birth rates are lower, they have a higher share of foreign born kids than in the population overall.
If you look at the PISA report from the OECD (pisa.oecd.org) from 2003, the US is in the middle of the pack, yes, but the top students here don't do any better than the top students in other countries - that is, these class-homogeneous suburban schools that we all think are so great aren't doing any better than good schools in (homogeneous) Hungary or (less homogeneous) Sweden. And the bottom kids in America do a lot worse.
For all their problems with racism and a striking failure to integrate their immigrants, somehow most continental Europeans even in countries with sizable immigrant populatoins manage to educate their marginalized inner-city people (native-born and immigrant) at least a little better than we do, and they sure don't have vouchers. I suspect it has something to do with less class-based residential segregation, at least in the Netherlands, but there are probably other things worth looking at.
Posted at February 3, 2006 2:31 PM in response to School Frays
