More oppression of the Chinese peasantry: by closing privately run schools for children of migrant workers, Chinese government officials claim they are trying to protect children from dirty, unsafe school environments; yet they refuse to permit the children to enroll in public schools. The result: generations of already disadvantaged migrant children condemned to low-paying, low-skill jobs. At a meeting of school owners and Shanghai district officials, the officials told the school owners:

"Your fifth-graders couldn't pass a third-grade exam at public schools. We can't believe you are taking good care of those children as you say," Dachang district Communist Party Secretary Zhu Jinzhong told the meeting.

The owners were given no chance to respond. But at one point, Zhu conceded that the city has no alternative plans for educating migrant children, who he said outnumber children of legal residents in Dachang district.