Open Enrollment

“Fewer Slots May Force Out Open Enrollment,” May 3.

Here the Los Angeles Unified School District goes again. Now they are preparing parents for elimination of open enrollment. Gee, isn’t that convenient! There are students who do not want to go to their home schools, just as there are those who do. The power of choice should drive all schools to excellence. If the district opened enrollment for all schools, it might be able to determine which schools were doing things right. If schools were chosen, the process would validate those schools’ policies. If schools were chosen, they would have an opportunity to incorporate the families who choose that school in accountability for the students’ success. But that would address the free and appropriate education for all children.

Educators are consistently faced with providing an education for children whose parents feel alienated or intimidated by the process, school or teacher(s). Open enrollment empowers parents to feel that they are making a positive difference in their child’s education. . . . Just because a school is in a more affluent neighborhood does not make it a school of choice.

In LAUSD, choice is consistently compromised by the bureaucracy that cannot embrace the empowerment of the constituency that it serves, the parents and students.

PEGGY AKBAR, Encino