More Magnet Questions

In my last entry I mentioned something that has bothered me: the number of non-F&R families who are given magnets as their base schools. Their children not only get to take advantage of the special programs that the rest of us are denied, but they get to walk to school or ride their neighborhood bus. WCPSS lets us believe that magnets are located in high poverty neighborhoods, but that isn't always the case. So just who is getting magnet schools as their base? Two examples that should shock you are the base populations of Joyner and Underwood, both elementary magnets.

To be fair, both schools do have low income nodes assigned to them. Joyner is located in an interesting area that is a mix of apartment complexes, condos and single family homes. Across the street from Joyner is a new development of homes starting in the $700Ks (The Oaks at Fallon Park) while behind Joyner is a large apartment complex where a lot of the low income kids live. Underwood, on the other hand, has to bus in their low income kids from downtown because there aren't a significant number near the school.

At one point in time, both of these schools (and their surrounding areas) may have struggled. But as you will see in the following tables, neither school is located in a high poverty area as we are typically led to believe. So why are they still magnets? Even more frustrating is the fact that in last year's reassignment plan, it was noted that Underwood has too low of an F&R for a magnet (29%) but they couldn't figure out how to raise it. If you can't raise a magnet's F&R above 29%, then perhaps its time to rethink its magnet status.




Both of these tables are abbreviated versions. The full tables, including information for each property that sold are available at: Joyner
and Underwood