Valley Is ‘Getting Shafted,’ Weintraub Says of Magnet School Proposal

In an impassioned attack on a proposal that could reduce the percentage of white students in some of the Los Angeles school district’s popular magnet programs, school board member Roberta Weintraub said Friday that the idea poses “a real threat to magnet schools and all desegregated schools in the district.”

Speaking before parents representing Valley magnet schools, Weintraub called on them to rally against a proposed study that could lead to a 10% decrease in the number of white students at some of the district’s 86 magnet schools.

The Los Angeles Unified School District board is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to conduct the study.

If parents don’t fight the plan, Weintraub said, “this could be Custer’s last stand.”

“I’m really tired of our Valley schools getting shafted,” Weintraub said. “My perception is that will we have a massive pullout of the middle class.”

Current court-approved guidelines establish a ratio of 60% minority to 40% white at most district schools. The new proposal would initiate a study of changing the ratio to 70% minority to 30% white at some magnets.

Behind debate over ratios at magnet schools is the question of what is an integrated school. Some board members believe that, with the district as a whole now 82% minority, the old 60-40 ratio is unrealistic. Many magnet schools already have ratios closer to 70-30, as well as long waiting lists of minority students.

These board members want to give minorities more opportunity to attend magnet programs by changing the ratio at all of the schools.

Most magnet schools with predominantly white enrollment are in the Valley and on the Westside. According to district officials, several hundred white Valley students also are now on magnet-school waiting lists.

Magnet schools were created to enhance integration through specialized programs that focus on a particular area of study, such as science, mathematics or the arts. Attendance is voluntary and a complex formula is used to determine who may enroll, based on such consideration as ethnicity and whether a student’s neighborhood school is crowded.

Weintraub said proposals to change ethnic ratios at magnet schools and to convert the entire school district to a year-round calendar are alienating Valley parents.

She said the magnet proposal could decrease chances white students have of getting into the schools. If the ratios are changed, more minority students would have to be recruited for the magnets, while a lesser number of white students would be allowed to enroll.

The suggestion to review ethnic ratios at magnet schools was made in October by Jackie Goldberg, who represents the Wilshire and Hollywood areas on the school board. In addition to furthering integration, Goldberg hopes that changing the ratios would ease crowded conditions at other schools.

The 60-40 ratio was established by the courts to help desegregate Los Angeles city schools. According to guidelines based on a landmark California school desegregation case, McKinney vs. Oxnard, increasing minority enrollment to 70% can be done only if the surrounding community does not perceive the change to result in a racially segregated school.

Goldberg’s proposal would initiate a study, called a McKinney analysis, designed to measure community perception of whether an increase in the number of minority students would cause the school to be viewed as segregated.