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A better choice

Pinellas' school choice plan still may be confounding to parents, but give the district credit. It has just made the choosing part a little easier.

For the coming school year, the deadline to apply for student assignment under the choice plan is April 9, a full five months later than it was last year. That will allow families more time to consider their options. The district is also throwing out the window the paper applications, which proved time-consuming and led to clerical mistakes. Choice decisions can be made online and over the phone.

The changes may be partially owed to the personal experiences of superintendent Clayton Wilcox, who was hired last year only to find that his own children had missed the choice deadline and faced limited options. But the changes also reflect an encouraging family orientation in Largo. The choice plan, conceived mostly by attorneys, is often at odds with the way families operate and their expectations for school assignment.

This is only the first step, and bigger ones are ahead. An appointed task force has begun a review of the choice plan, and chairman Gareth Whitehurst, a former School Board member, puts it this way: "At the root of it are the same questions, in my opinion, that the U.S. Supreme Court struggled with in 1954. It's "How are we going to define ourselves as a school enterprise in this community?"'

Whitehurst's question is apt, and it invites a new look at the legal boundaries for school districts wanting to maintain racial diversity. Just last month, for example, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Seattle choice plan provision that gives preference to students who improve racial balance in a school. Pinellas' previous school attorney argued that such preferences would be unconstitutional.

The task force has only begun to examine how Pinellas' plan compares with others across the country. What it will find is that one reason parents are disoriented is that the plan itself is riddled with contradictions and written as though money and bus rides and predawn schedules and the connection between school and neighborhood are immaterial.

Parents can thank the district for giving them more time to make decisions for the coming year. Beyond 2006-07, though, school choice will need a more significant overhaul than later deadlines.

[Last modified November 7, 2005, 01:10:19]