Magnet Schools Pull Communities Apart

“Magnet Schools: A Tilted Playing Field” (Opinion, May 27) does a good job describing LAUSD’s convoluted magnet application system but overlooks the greater problem--how that system devastates neighborhood schools.

Parents play the waiting-list game in elementary school to accumulate points to compete for middle-school magnets. As Gale Holland points out, many parents would gladly stay at their local elementary schools--which are often racially integrated and which parents have worked hard to support but are forced to abandon if their children are accepted to a magnet. Otherwise, they lose all points and are at a disadvantage when applying to middle-school magnets. The result: The neighborhood school suffers a constant attrition of families who are often among the most involved, and the local middle school loses the influx of families that might turn it around.

The solution is simple: Every child should start with a clean slate when applying to middle school. Getting into a desirable elementary magnet should be reward enough. These students should not get the additional reward of receiving priority when applying to middle-school magnets.

Ann Wexler

Los Angeles