In the long-term, companies would get a lot of benefits from funding the expansion or creation of public schools near their office sites. Bloomberg Business Week reported that 80 percent of employers said child care caused workdays to get cut short—and created more problems than any other family-related issue in the workplace. Businesses save between $150,000 and $250,000 per year when there are on-site or nearby preschools. Economic benefits include reduced absenteeism and turnover, along with increased employee satisfaction and loyalty—all of which substantially improve productivity.

But there could also be diversity benefits. The No Child Left Behind Act gave parents the option of applying to schools other than the ones in their neighborhoods and expanded funding for charter and magnet schools. In some states, such as New Jersey, families can even request transfers outside their school district. These alternatives were mandated to desegregate schools and provide equal educational opportunities for all children.

Unfortunately, these efforts have failed to accomplish their goals. In fact, they have increased—not decreased—educational inequality and segregation since the 1960s. For example, New York City, which uses an open lottery for school placement, has the most segregated big-city schools in the nation.

The school-transfer criteria established by the No Child Left Behind Act should be expanded to allow parents to choose between guaranteed public school placement for their kids near to where they live or where they work—this would help make life easier for working parents, decrease ethnic and economic segregation, and increase productivity and educational equality. Since working parents are the new normal, and workplaces are the new neighborhoods, the way children are matched with schools should change to reflect reality.

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