Getting Hip to KIPP

KIPP is a charter school outfit you'll be hearing a lot about as we enter this brave new world of charter cheerleading. Let's make sure we start documenting both sides of the story:

Despite solid test results, critics point to a different number -- an attrition rate of more than 50 percent -- that they say is evidence the school hasn't changed public education but is instead cherry-picking the best students and sending the rest back to the Albany district. Eleven KIPP students have returned to Albany schools since the end of the last school year, and the school does not enroll new seventh and eighth graders.

"The point is to educate every kid," Albany school board President Dan Egan said. "When you set up a different funding system and different rules, it's a diversion from what ought to be our main effort."