Does Open Enrollment Work?

National School Choice Week runs the last week of January.  Normally I would save such a post for then but this topic is at the core of the STEAM program just adopted by the Robbinsdale Area Schools.  It is a magnet program, an internal choice that the Board feels will raise enrollment.  By making 281 "a district of choice" it should lose fewer students to private schools, charter schools, and other public schools via Open Enrollment.  STEAM's financial success in fact depends on gaining students via Open Enrollment.

Let me question the Open Enrollment concept more generally, however.  Consider the recent case of the Eden Prairie Schools, where the (former) Superintendent tried to patch over sagging test scores at one school by intra-district busing.  The parents and taxpayers made enough noise to change Superintendents but as many as 300 families simply used Open Enrollment to escape this foolishness. Just being near the border of a significantly better district spurs Open Enrollment, exhibit A being the Minneapolis Public Schools that loses hundreds of students to the first ring suburbs.

The districts and unions were opposed to Open Enrollment from the start, even though the cause célèbre of DFL governor Rudy Perpich.  Many (most?) districts and certainly the unions continue to oppose it as unfair and unneeded competition.  But state officials often take a bow when Minnesota is showcased as a leader in education policy.

Open enrollment was first passed 25 years ago as optional, made mandatory 5 years later.  We on the right tend to assume more choice in education is a priori a good thing.  I submit: maybe not.

For one thing, the relative movement is small, both in numbers and geographically.  The academic difference is hard to measure.  While there are winners and losers, statewide we all lose a little in extra paperwork, accounting, and transportation.  And if the parents are involved enough to make such a change (as we did), wouldn't the same commitment bear the same fruit or nearly as much?  Or more if by pressing, the entire district corrects whatever deficiency prompted the switch?

Take an extreme example, a family living in the Lowry Hill East neighborhood who opts for St. Louis Park for their 10th and 12th graders.  They can take the #17 Metro Transit bus, maybe having to leave ten minutes earlier.  They definitely will get more educational opportunity because the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) are the quite possibly the worst in the state, particular for minority cohorts.  Isn't Open Enrollment of value here, doing what Gov. Perpich intended?  Yes, short term, but long term maybe not.  It's like Canada's single payer health care system which depends on the United States as a safety valve to treat Canadians not approved or scheduled months out, possibly fatally so.  Open Enrollment takes some pressure off dysfunctional MPS administration and disinterested DFL legislators.

It would be most interesting to see how the DFL would react if the Republicans were to introduce a bill abolishing Open Enrollment in the name of saving money and improving accountability.  Call it a "neighborhood school" bill that also requires a school district not force busing like Eden Prairie might have done as an internal form of Open Enrollment.

Comments

[The Big Stink]

When the taxpayers revolt and insist on tax credits and vouchers, we'll see some reform. Until then, the patterns are painfully obvious: failing students are the result of non-engaged parents - usually single parents. You can tinker around the margins, but there will be increasing failure as long as there is no consequence for the sexual roulette practiced by so many. The problem isn't money and it isn't the open enrollment or the education structure - it lies in our collective moral failures - and as long as the state subsidizes people for their ability to procreate, we're in a futile battle.

[The Big Stink]

Besides, if you did away with open enrollment, how would Hopkins ever win a state basketball title?

[Give2Attain]

One upside to Open Enrollment is that it lets cities that are slipping due to bad schools or bad students keep some of their residents that may have otherwise fled the community. It is kind of like the benefit of Private schools without the cost...

Without Private schools and Open enrollment, I wonder who would be left living within the 494/694 loop? Maybe just retirees, households without kids and those that can not afford to escape the 494/694 zone. It is kind of escape from NY without the guns and barb wire.

[Give2Attain]

And if you are someone who is tempted to get upset by my last comment... Remember that I live inside the zone...

I can see the asphalt fence from my house, but I still choose to live on this side of it.

[Nike Air Max]

And if you are someone who is tempted to get upset by my last comment... Remember that I live inside the zone...

I can see the asphalt fence from my house, but I still choose to live on this side of it.

[Hiram]

"It would be most interesting to see how the DFL would react if the Republicans were to introduce a bill abolishing Open Enrollment in the name of saving money and improving accountability."

I am all for accountability. But the goal of our schools is to teach, not to be accountable. What we learn from accountability should be one of the things that drives the way we teach. But we shouldn't allow the desire for accountability to drive the way we teach. We shouldn't let the tail wag the dog.

[The Big Stink]

Tail wagging the dog? You've just described the current state of public education. The mission in education appears to be CYA while using their favored politicians to secure more money. This doesn't mean there are well-intentioned people inside the system - there are. Unfortunately, we come to the point in time where the parasite has taken over the host.