This was in the Free Press today:

http://www.freep.com/article/2009080...Public-Schools

I don't actually agree with the whole thing--in particular I don't understand why a "donation tax credit" system would be required for this to be done and there is no explanation given in the oped piece,

But the fundamental idea seems unarguable--if you can reform the schools at all, which is unproven, it would take a long time. You could get quicker and surer results by changing to a choice system.

The piece does not say this, but I also believe that it would take even longer before people believed the schools were reformed. If you want to attract more middle-class people with children to the city, giving them control of their school funding would be one way that would be very likely to work, and much faster than it could ever be achieved by reforming the schools.