The Promise of Open Enrollment Policy : 57% of the 9,810 LAUSD students who moved to different schools are in the Valley

The number of students who took advantage of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new open enrollment policy is quite small in relation to the school system’s huge size. Citywide, just 9,810 students switched campuses this year, a figure that represents less than 2% of the LAUSD’s overall enrollment. But that hardly means that the program is a failure or another sign of district malaise that ought to be scrapped.

In fact, interest was strongest right here in the San Fernando Valley, home of 57% of the students who moved to new schools. Here, the program appears to have accomplished exactly what was intended. Public school choice was an excellent idea. The relaxation of once-rigid school attendance boundary rules gave parents new freedoms, and it might even help allay some of their concerns about the embattled LAUSD.

Taft High School in Woodland Hills, which had more open spaces than other schools, gained 488 new students. Noble Middle School and Castlebay Lane Elementary School followed with 130 and 98 new students, respectively. The fact that Noble and Castlebay are in Northridge, where memories of the January earthquake are still vivid, says much about the appeal of both schools.

Some concern has been voiced that many of the transfers have been racially motivated, and involve white families that are trying to escape the increasing diversity of the city’s public schools. So said Reseda High School Principal Bob Kladifko, whose campus lost 100 students to the choice movement. But that belief seemed to fly in the face of the case of Taft High, where white enrollment increased only slightly from the transfers, according to Principal Ron Berz.

One of the examples is Edith Blanco of distant Sun Valley, who makes a 45-minute drive to Taft twice a day for her two sons because she feels it is a superior school that offers a safe environment. “I’m really grateful that this came along,” Blanco said. “I’m willing to sacrifice my time.”

Choice is a necessary option for parents who have not lost hope, and are willing to give the LAUSD another chance.