Chicago Public Schools officials backed down Thursday from a controversial plan to reserve 30 percent of the enrollment at magnet schools for neighborhood children by agreeing to set aside only half that percentage for children who live near a magnet school.
At the recommendation of the seven-member Monitoring Commission for Desegregation Implementation, school officials agreed to vote on a “phase-in” policy that would reserve only 15 percent of all seats in each of the district’s 43 magnet schools for neighborhood children in the first year the plan is implemented. If the set-aside plan is deemed effective, the district could vote to increase that percentage–probably to 30 percent–in the second year, under the commission’s recommendation.
“I think the recommendation is very reasonable,” schools chief Paul Vallas said after the meeting, which was attended by Vallas, board President Gery Chico and about two dozen parents and school staff members. “The bottom line is we want to see a neighborhood set-aside. Insofar as the timetable, we’re very comfortable with the commission’s recommendation that we phase it in.”
Officials also agreed to hold a third public hearing on the issue on Tuesday and to delay the board vote on the proposal until Nov. 26.
Dawn Clark Netsch, the commission member assigned to magnet schools, said she proposed the set-aside reduction so schools and families could have more time to adjust to the enrollment policy change.
Netsch also said district officials should review the plan after a year to determine if they should raise the set-aside percentage. Under the plan, the set-asides would apply to eligible children who live within a mile of a magnet elementary school and within 2 1/2 miles of a magnet high school. If there are more applicants than positions available, the schools would conduct a lottery for neighborhood children separate from the annual lottery for student slots that is standard at most magnet schools.
“I think, for some reason, the idea of 30 percent just kind of jolted people,” said Netsch, a former gubernatorial candidate. “It sounded like an awful lot, real fast.”
In addition to the set-asides, district officials are proposing a transportation plan that would limit service to students who live 1 1/2 to 6 miles from a magnet elementary school. Bus service is not provided to students at the district’s 10 magnet high schools. Commission members did not suggest any changes to the transportation proposal.
Chico said the established guidelines give most students access to a wide range of magnet schools in the city.
“The only thing we are eliminating is border-to-border transportation,” Chico said. “That is simply a luxury we cannot afford as a system.”
Magnet schools were established in 1982 under a schoolwide desegregation plan designed to integrate schools and encourage middle-class families to stay in the city. Magnet schools offer curriculum centered around specific themes, such as math and science or fine arts, and attempt to maintain a student population that is 15 to 35 percent white.
Magnet schools always have enrolled all of their students from across the city, a point of contention for many people who oppose the board’s new plan.
“The magnet school program is an integration program,” said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, a reform organization. “Having neighborhood kids attend a school that is part of an integration program is defeating the purpose.”
The desegregation monitoring commission was set up under a 1980 consent decree and is mandated by the U.S. Justice Department to monitor the district’s desegregation programs–including magnet schools and bilingual education.
