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Improving public school choice in California

The San Juan Unified School District northeast of Sacramento is making some noteworthy changes to its public school choice program:

The San Juan Unified School District board unanimously approved major changes to its open enrollment policy Tuesday night, likely affecting how many students will win admission each year to the most popular schools.

The new policies are part of what Superintendent Steven Enoch called a "customer service" approach to managing enrollment across the district.

In probably the most significant change, a school will accept students through the open enrollment process until its physical capacity is reached. Currently, the district caps enrollment at the most-requested schools to ensure less-popular schools have adequate enrollment.

Good for them.  If a preferred school has room, why not let the kids in?  Answer:

Trustee Thomaysa Glover suggested the proposal would hurt less-popular schools.

"We’re happy when we can fill a certain school, but … I feel a little bit uncomfortable with how that would affect schools surrounding schools that are in high demand," she said.

Education isn’t about the schools–it’s about the children.  If they can get a better deal at a different school, let ’em go.  

Also, it’s kind of interesting that they’re called "less-popular" or "schools surrounding schools that are in high demand."  Great pains are taken to avoid calling these schools "bad", "unperforming", or otherwise undesirable.