A lot of suburbs have great facilities, a lot of money that is put into (the private school athletic programs), ... Integration is a big thing that hurt us because we (at Carver) always had a lot of good athletes and after integration they were going somewhere else.

Montgomery is the private school capital of the world,

Show me a town that's got a good athletic program, they've got total support,

When I was coaching, the kids wanted to leave private schools for the public schools so they could get the best coaching, play the best competition. It's not that way anymore.

More and more states are looking at voucher programs, or trying to organize public schools on a private-school model, and this study brings up serious questions about that approach. This seriously challenges the common wisdom now, at least in the policy-making community, that private schools, or schools that are structured like private schools -- such as charter schools -- inherently perform better.

Our athletic programs are part of our public face, and unfortunately our scandals have become part of the public face. The less-than-glorious but everyday living values that have to do with our research, our teaching and our processes of governance are also valuable to the state.