Soon after starting his job as supervisor of the Memphis, Tenn., public schools, Kriner Cash ordered an assessment of his new district’s 104,000 students. What most concerned him was that the number of students considered “highly mobile,” meaning they had moved at least once during the school year, had ballooned to 34,000. At least l,500 students were homeless—probably more. It led him to think over an unusual suggestion: What if the best way to help kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods is to get them out? Cash is now calling for Memphis to create a residential .school for 300 to 400 kids whose parents are in financial distress. His proposal is at the forefront (最前线) of a broader national trend. Public boarding schools are hardly a new concept. But publicly financing boarding schools for inner city kids is a very different suggestion. If Cash’s dream becomes a reality, it will probably look a lot like SEED (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development), whose 320 students live on campus five days a week. Perhaps the provocative (引起争论的) aspect of Cash’s proposal is to focus on students in grade 3 through 5. Homelessness is growing sharply among kids at that critical age, when much of their educational foundation is set, Cash says. His aim: to prevent illiteracy and clear other learning roadblocks early, so the problem “won’t migrate into middle and high school.” Students will remain on campus year-round. “It sounds very exciting, but the devil is in the details” says Ellen Bassuk, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness in Newton, Mass. “What’s it like to separate a third- or fifth-grader from their parents?” It may help to consider the experience of SEED student Mansur Muhammad, 17. When he arrived seven years ago, the first few weeks were tough. But Muhammad hasn’t looked back. He maintains a 8.2 GPA and reshelves books in the school’s library for $160 every couple of days, when he’s not in his room listening to rap or classical music and writing poetry. Inspired by a teacher, Muhammad is working on a book. “It was a long road for me to get here,” he says, “and I have a long way to go.” What did Cash Intend to do with the kids in poverty-stricken urban neighborhoods to “get them out”?