Math Lesson : Adding It All Up, L.A. Scales Back Planned Magnet Expansion

Beset by a shortage of space and money, the Los Angeles school district has backed away from an ambitious plan to expand its highly acclaimed magnet school program--cutting from 24 to three the number of new magnets opening this fall.

The overcrowding crisis that has forced the Los Angeles Unified School District into year-round operation, as well the district’s daunting budget problems, are taking a toll on the magnet program, which has thousands of students waiting in line for seats in the specialized classes.

The magnet system is the district’s version of the “choice” concept, touted by President Bush as a way to fix the nation’s troubled public schools by fostering competition.

Proponents say choice encourages parents to act more like the education consumers they really are, and forces weaker schools to improve in order to compete for students. The state Legislature is currently considering bills aimed at broadening California student options, and parents nationally are clamoring for more choice, too.

When the Los Angeles school board voted last spring to expand the magnet program to add space for 6,500 students, it increased the district’s commitment to that trend. Now, however, the district is drastically scaling back its expansion plans.

“The overcrowding crisis is so overwhelming . . . it eats up (classroom) space and makes it harder” to create new magnets, said Richard Battaglia, coordinator of the district’s magnet program. “There are a lot of schools we’d love to put a magnet program in . . . but there’s no space.”

The board’s list of 24 proposed new magnet schools “was drawn up contingent on space and finances,” he said. “That was then. . . . Given the new reality, it would be very difficult to add this many programs.”

Eight new magnets were added last fall to the 87 already in the district. But the list of 24 the board wanted to start in September, 1990, has been cut to three this year as the district grapples with the budget and space problems.

The magnet sites recommended by the board last spring are primarily in minority areas plagued by overcrowding. But in these areas, where schools struggle to find enough seats for the resident population, it can be difficult to carve out even the three classrooms needed to house a small magnet center

School board President Jackie Goldberg this week called the delay in expanding the program “a setback,” although she expects the plan eventually will go ahead “if we can find a way to pay for the magnets.”

The space crunch may ease in the next three years as all the district’s schools increase their capacity by 23%, she said. That would create new space in existing magnets and room for new magnet centers in some regular schools.

The magnet system started in the late 1970s as a seven-school pilot program aimed at attracting students from throughout the district to classes offering specialized subjects and teaching approaches.

Originally a means of achieving voluntary integration and blunting the impact of a court-ordered busing program that was widely opposed by white parents, the magnets survived beyond the end of mandatory busing in 1981, emerging as one of the district’s most popular programs.

Today the program includes 20 magnet schools and 75 other magnet centers within regular schools. Some offer programs focusing on specific subjects such as performing arts, mathematics, or health and medicine. Others, such as the alternative, fundamental or gifted programs, feature specialized learning approaches.

About 28,000 of the district’s 610,000 students attend the magnets, and up to 20,000 more wind up on the waiting lists each September.

During the annual application period--which ends today--more than 30,000 students will vie for about 8,500 seats that will open up.

Computers compile the final enrollment list, and who gets in is determined by a formula that grants points for factors such as whether a student comes from an overcrowded or mostly minority school, is already on a waiting list or has a sibling at the school.

School officials strive for an ethnically balanced enrollment at each magnet, with 60% to 70% of the students minorities and 30% to 40% white.

Most of the district’s magnet schools are in the west San Fernando Valley, South Bay or on the Westside, and have no trouble attracting both white and minority students. Because the district is only 15% white and some magnets may enroll up to 40% white students, most of the children who wind up on the waiting lists are minorities.

Conversely, even highly acclaimed schools in minority areas have difficulty attracting enough whites to meet the ethnic balance guidelines, resulting in schools that are up to 90% minority.

The disparity in the placement of magnets led the school board last year to decide to concentrate the new magnets in under-served minority areas.

The concentration of magnets in predominantly white neighborhoods, “tells a story of institutional racism,” board member Leticia Quezada warned before approving the new sites last year.

If poor and minority children “wanted access to an enriched curriculum, they had to travel to other neighborhoods, while other children were told that they could have that enriched curriculum in their own neighborhood,” she said.

Battaglia said there is space for new magnets in west San Fernando Valley schools, but “how does that help to relieve overcrowding or provide magnet programs for those kids in the areas of the city that have fewer magnet programs?”

Instead, the district is trying to squeeze magnet programs onto overcrowded campuses. Officials are converting unused space into classrooms, setting aside space in schools as they are built and making the magnets smaller--such as the three-classroom math/science magnet that will begin this year at Plasencia Elementary, a mid-city school slated to go year-round this summer.

Except for the district’s 23 magnet programs for gifted students, none of the magnets require students to have any special aptitude or skills.

Still, magnet students perform significantly better academically--scoring an average of up to 30 points higher on state achievement tests--than their counterparts in regular schools. Minority students who attend magnet high schools also emerge better prepared for college, a school district study says.

There is no single factor to explain the superior performance, but most magnet school supporters agree that parental involvement and the self-selection process are important reasons.

“The magnet school concept works,” said Dan Feger, who has a son in Balboa Boulevard Elementary’s gifted magnet and another at their neighborhood school in Northridge. “You take kids that want to learn and put them together and challenge them and you see tremendous results.”

During the monthlong application period each year, the magnets resemble private schools, with hordes of anxious parents traipsing through classrooms and meeting with administrators as they search out the right school for their children and assess their chances of getting in.

Many apply to several magnets; others spend years on waiting lists before finally getting into the school of their choice.

Magnets receive an extra $50 per student from the state’s integration fund, which most use for enrichment supplies and activities, such as field trips or computer software.

Despite its educational value, the magnet program is an expensive proposition for the cash-strapped Los Angeles school district because of extra, often costly equipment needed for special programs and the cost of transporting students from throughout the district to their selected schools.

It costs about $36 million a year just to provide bus service for the 80% of magnet students who need it. The state reimburses the district for up to 80% of that, but the more than $7 million remaining is difficult to absorb in a district looking for ways to cut $200 million from its budget of close to $4 billion.

Battaglia estimated the start-up costs for the eight magnets that opened last September and the three new programs that will begin this fall at about $4.7 million. For the first time, the district has received a $3.4-million federal grant to cover part of that cost, he said.

“We’re looking outside the district for ways to fund the magnet programs, but the question is whether or not the district can continue to afford even its portion of the new magnet schools,” he said.

“We’ve got very, very tight space and very, very tight budgets,” Battaglia said. “I wouldn’t say it’s canceled out the possibility (of opening new magnets), but it’s a large consideration.”

NEXT STEP

Applications for September admission to magnet programs must be postmarked today. Brochures listing magnet choices and applications are available at neighborhood schools or school district headquarters. Parents will be informed by early June whether their child has been admitted to a magnet or placed on that school’s waiting list. Children who get on a waiting list receive priority in the coming year’s magnet application process.

MAGNET SCHOOLS IN L.A.

An overcrowding crisis and a budget crunch in the Los Angeles Unified School District is taking its toll on the district’s highly-acclaimed magnet school program, forcing officials to put the ambitious expansion plans on hold. Some facts about L.A.’s magnet school program:

The magnet system started in the late 1970s as a seven-school pilot program aimed at attracting students from throughout the district to integrated classes offering specialized subjects and teaching approaches.

Eight new magnet programs were added last fall, but the list of 24 proposed to start in September has been scaled back to three, as space at many schools on the list has disappeared.

Today, the program includes 20 magnet schools and 75 other magnet centers within regular schools.

Most of the district’s magnet schools are located in the West San Fernando Valley, South Bay and on the Westside, and have no trouble attracting both white and minority students. Because the district is only 15% white and magnets may enroll up to 40% white students, most of the children who don’t make it in and wind up on those schools’ waiting lists are minority.

Magnet students perform significantly better academically--scoring an average of up to 30 points higher on state achievement tests--than their counterparts in regular schools.

L.A. Unified School District enrollent for current school year: All other students: 582,000 Students in magnet schools: 28,000