Magnet Schools and Discrimination

The essay, “Mom vs. LAUSD, and Both Sides Win” (by Kerry Madden-Lunsford, Voices, Sept. 13), raised several questions in my mind.

Why should a community have magnet schools in the first place? It seems to me that parents should be able to send their children to the nearest school secure in the knowledge that these children will receive an education equal to that at any other school in the district. Anything less is discriminatory, no matter what excuses or euphemisms are offered.

If one child in a multi-child family has been admitted to a magnet school, why should their other children receive “sibling points” to boost their applications? Let the little dears tough it out just like everyone else.

So, Madden-Lunsford and her husband worked for the L.A. Unified School District; why should that fact garner any points for their offspring?

In my opinion, it’s about time the public insisted that the quality of schools throughout the system be improved rather than spending scarce resources on facilities that benefit the few. In the absence of such action, I suggest that the magnet schools charge a premium (tuition?) to offset any expenses associated with their role, since the advantages offered by the magnet schools are not generally available.

CARL L. HANSEN

Riverside

* As a public school teacher, I was disturbed by Madden-Lunsford’s essay. She wrote an entertaining account of the enrollment process for a magnet school. What I found objectionable was the inference that if her children could not be in a magnet school, they had to be in a private school. Although I support the choice of magnet schools, the majority of our children are in public schools, which for the most part do an exemplary job of educating them.

If Madden-Lunsford, who was a teacher for five years in East L.A., and her husband, who is still working in L.A. Unified, find only the magnet schools worthy of their children’s education, what message are they sending to the rest of the parents in the district? The public school system has always been and, I believe, still is the source of our strength. Today’s society has created more problems for the schools than at any other time, and the schools have coped admirably. Educators try to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society but will wage a losing battle if parents believe the public schools are for someone else’s children.

ESTELLE WASLOSKY

Brea