Magnet schools draw too well

[The Straight Story]

Magnet schools draw too well
Columbus’ best schools getting more applicants than spaces available


This is the Columbus school district’s annual lesson in supply and demand.

Parents want their children in the most sought-after schools, such as Berwick and Indianola elementaries. But there are only so many desks. So in the schools that parents most desire, as many as seven of every 10 applications filed are turned down.

More than 7,100 students applied to attend a district school other than the one to which they’re assigned, roughly the same as last school year. About 45 percent of the district’s 53,000 students do not attend their neighborhood buildings.

And in some schools — Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School, for example — the number of students on a waiting list is nearly long enough to fill a school building. About 630 students go to Fort Hayes each year. But more than 400 are among those who’d like to go next year, and that’s after 200 students already were accepted through the lottery.

“If you have a wait list with 500 students on it, you have a supply-demand problem,” said Stephanie Groce, vice president of the Columbus Board of Education.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/06/06/magnet-schools-draw-too-well.html?sid=101

[sandnsea]

1. Actually you have a good school problem

Which could easily be fixed if the magnet school solutions were implemented to all schools.

Things like removing unruly students, setting parental participation standards, upgrading curriculums, providing more tutors, channeling student interests, and whatever else is making magnets and charters work that aren't currently done in public schools.

[Regret My New Name]

2. Any idea what prevents these successful school's ideas from propagating?

Funding? Politics? Something else? little of everything?

[XemaSab]

3. The purpose of magnet schools

is to high-grade the public school system.

If they accepted everyone who applied, then the magnet schools would suck too.

[Hannah Bell]

4. purpose is to attract the well-heeled who might otherwise opt for private schools.