Yes--in Washington, D.C. Listen to this fascinating NPR segment, which discusses both the benefits of an inner-city charter school that boards seventh- through twelfth-graders, and the difficulties of a venture that costs taxpayers about four times what a day school costs and that kids must win a lottery to attend.

Hmmm, public boarding schools actually have been around for awhile. I went to NCSSM in Durham, NC, which is a public boarding school for 11th and 12th graders drawn from the entire state and graduated its first senior class in 1982. Some other states copied the idea... I know Illinois has IMSA, which runs from 10th-12th grade.

Anyway, all these schools are science & math magnet schools. At NCSSM, there were no fees at all - tuition, room, or board. The food sucked, but I survived on Cheerios and applesauce for every meal for two years. My family showed up once a week to feed me real food. Very expensive for the state, of course, but it was a way to provide for academic excellence, which can be thin on the ground in most of the state. To make it more fair, they had student quotas by Congressional district, so that the kids from rich areas competed against each other and didn't push out the rural kids. And many from the "good schools" in the state didn't go anyway, because we had lots of restrictions at the school, like no afterschool jobs and no cars.

Maine has a Math & Science public boarding school for Jrs and Srs. Tuition is $0, but there's a 3K charge for room & board. My son went there, found a strong program in math and science (as expected) but also in history, language, etc.

That's right - I've met some graduates of Maine's school. And I knew some people who went to NCSSM because we had an awesome art studio. Everyone had to take the same 3 years' worth of science in 2 years, and math every semester, in addition to humanities requirements. I would say a large percentage of those who went to NCSSM ended up majoring in something completely other than math or science, and probably don't work in those fields at all. It was a solid, all-around education.

Still, I spent most of my time with math, because that's what I liked.