PART 1 (15:00)

Does Zero Tolerance Make Zero Sense?

In 1998, a school in Mississippi suspended five boys for assault with a deadly weapon. The "deadly weapon" was a peanut. Across the country, schools with zero tolerance policies are suspending and expelling students in record numbers– often for minor infractions. Are students benefiting from these disciplinary practices? Are schools safer? Or does zero tolerance make zero sense? John Merrow talks to Judy Browne from the Advancement Project in Washington, DC.

-Recorded October 3, 2000

	ARTICLE "Living with Zero Tolerance," Chris Pipho, Phi Delta Kappan, June, 1998. WEB SITES For "Opportunities Suspended" Report Harvard Civil Rights Project

---

PART 2 (19:30)

Ron Suskind: A Hope in the Unseen

Pulitzer prize winning author Ron Suskind spent three years following a young man on his journey from a desolate inner city high school in Washington, DC to the hallowed halls of Brown University. Suskind's book– A Hope in the Unseen– is now required reading for many college freshmen. Suskind talks about how chronicling one boy's struggle has informed his own perspective on the debate over poverty, race, and affirmative action in America.

-Recorded September 25, 2000

	ARTICLES "And Clarence Thomas Wept," Ron Suskind, Esquire, July, 1998. "Up From the Ghetto," Timothy Noah, The Washington Monthly, April, 1998.

---

PART 3 (15:30)

The Economics of School Choice

One argument for school vouchers is based on the theory that consumer choice, in an open market system, will foster competition and drive up the quality of the product– in this case, schools. But will schools respond to a free market system in the same way that businesses do? Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Harvard, says that her research on school choice proves they will.

-Recorded September 25, 2000