Greene County, Georgia is a small, working class community with a big problem. Teen pregnancies, soaring dropout rates and poor test scores have frustrated school administrators for years and they are now fighting back with desperate measures. Unless someone stops them, the county is set to become the first district in the nation to offer only single-sex classrooms for public school students. From kindergarten to high school, the education board has voted to separate the boys from the girls. Only preschool classrooms and one charter school will be exempt from this change.

"At the rate we're moving, we're never going to catch up," Superintendent Shawn McCollough told parents last week. "If we're going to take some steps, let's take some big steps."

The most obvious problem with this 'big step' is that according to some, it is illegal. Federal law allows single-sex classrooms in public schools, but only if parents have a choice. In other words, there must be coeducation classrooms available for parents who don't wish to separate the sexes. Because the entire district is going single-sex, parents in this district will have no choice.

Samara Yudof, spokeswoman for the U.S. Education Department, says officials "do not have sufficient facts to determine if the district would be in compliance" with federal law.

Some parents in the district are upset about the change, while others think it is a good idea. Which brings us back to the original point. If given a choice, some would choose to enroll their children in single-sex classrooms while others would not. Unfortunately, these parents and students aren't being given a choice.