The paramount duty of public schools is to support a democratic and economically mobile society by educating all students who walk in the door, regardless of their race, income, gender, disability, OR parents' willingness to support education. As soon as a school is allowed to say: parents need to fill out an application, parents need to sign this homework and attendance contract, parents need to volunteer x hours a year in the school, then it fails to be a public school. Yes, children do better in school if their parents are more involved. No, it is not ethical to create a two-tiered education system in which some American children are doubly punished for their parents' uninvolvement: first, through a lack of support at home and second, through being served in a "separate but unequal" school.
(17 years of informed commentary)