Focus on magnet schools misguided

BY RACHEL KAMINS

CHIP LOCKWOOD/YH When magnet schools win, public schools lose.

Magnet schools have been used across the state as a solution to school segregation since the 1996 Connecticut Supreme Court decision in Sheff vs. O'Neill. The plaintiffs of that case are heading back to court after five years because they find that, despite a bumper crop of new magnet schools in Hartford and other cities, urban public schools remain largely monochrome—in New Haven, their student body is 88 percent minority—and continue to provide an inadequate education for their many remaining students.

Magnet schools do address the segregation issue. The applications they receive for admission from urban and suburban kids are weighted for race and economic background with the aim of producing the most integrated mix possible within their given region. In New Haven magnets, that results in a student body that is 74 percent minority.

Whether or not this 14 percent increase in diversity is a worthwhile achievement, magnet schools come up short as a solution to the other educational problems in New Haven. If every school in the city were turned into a magnet, city kids would indeed benefit from better facilities and teaching standards. But they would suffer in other, unnecessary ways.

Magnet schools are specialized institutions, focusing on one subject area or type of training. That's super for highly directed students, but how many children know by age 12 or even 15 who they are and what they want to do? If magnets were the only option, thousands of students would be forced to choose a specialty, rather than being allowed to explore a range of options.

And if the chosen specialty were only offered at a magnet across town, kids accustomed to walking or riding a short distance to a neighborhood school would have to sit through extensive bus routes. After being shipped off in different directions each morning, neighborhood friends would grow apart. There's something to be said for interaction between the urban and suburban populations, but no candidate for mayor of New Haven would dare say that neighborhood strength is not a top priority.

The current system of allowing some students into magnets and condemning others to remain in public institutions is one good way to detract from neighborhood solidarity. These kids are not receiving equal education; much more money is spent on each magnet-school student. And it's hardly likely that in DeStefano's tenure as mayor, he will see every schoolchild in his city attending a magnet. The state's education budget has not grown quickly enough to fund magnets that have been founded in the past few years; it would have to shoot through the roof in order to support a total switchover.

Republican mayoral candidate Joel Schiavone supports reducing class sizes and renovating the administration of neighborhood schools. Nevertheless, due to his party affiliation, he has about as good a chance at election as I do. Rather than stump for him, I would ask Mayor DeStefano not to be carried away by an infatuation with magnet schools. It is more practical in the short term and perhaps more effectual in the long term to focus on strengthening the neighborhood schools, improving teaching and facilities while maintaining the characteristics-curricular variety, neighborhood involvement-that have always made public schools the best choice for many families.

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