A few take aways.
We shouldn’t have to debate how many student are or have been enrolled in LAUSD, this should be easy to find information on LAUSD’s website. Depending on the story Daily Breeze pegs current enrollment at 582,000 and the SF Gate at 665,000. Daily breeze says that 5 years ago LAUSD had 700,000 while the SF Gate pegs enrollment at a peak of 747,000 in 2002.
The Martinez/Garcia plan for Open Enrollment is being sold as a way to boost enrollment via improving schools, but I haven’t heard the specifics to connect the dots to make everything happen. I hope this plan gets compared to the Boston plan which has been heavily researched and something more informed comes out.
The Zimmer/Lamotte plan only asks for an investigation of declining enrollment. Eventually the Zimmer/Lamotte plan will have to intersect with school choice and the existing hurdles families face.
Transportation: Lots of comments about how LA families are going to get their kid to a school of choice. Unlike Boston and New York which are easy to commute, LA is a sprawl.
Property value: Parents who moved to a community for a specific school and spent thousands extra for the privilege are not happy about losing their right to a neighborhood education. Parents who were expecting to move for the right schools are intrigued about being able to live where they want and choose a school, maybe these ones are not aware of the current school choice options.
Daily Breeze - Barbara Jones was the first to get the story to the interwebs, I actually came to the story thanks to Magnet Angel
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_19707425
89.3 KPCC – has the most extensive coverage and 58 comments from the community which is by far the most discussion. KPCC also hosted a radio show with Monica Garcia and Dr. Deasy.
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2012/01/11/22077/open-enrollment-in-lausd-schools
ABC 7 – has some good quotes, not much discussion
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8498545
myFox LA – to their credit got Dr. Deasy to give a little camera time
http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/education/lausd-considers-open-enrollment-plan-20120110
LA Times – LA Now has only mentions both proposals, but no analysis http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/officials-call-for-plan-to-increase-la-unified-enrollment.html
LA Times – Varsity (sports track) has a bit of analysis
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/2012/01/an-lausd-proposal-would-get-rid-of-attendance-boundaries.html
AP story via San Francisco Chronicle is similar to the LA Times LA Now post
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/01/10/state/n163017S28.DTL
1 comment
Reflecting on LAUSD’s school choice Board motions | Hope Change Choices says:
Jan 16, 2012
[...] Martinez/ Garcia resolution leaves me with a lot of questions and based on comments on local news sites, many other parents have lots of questions. I personally follow the civil rights view of school [...]