Most traditional school districts hate open enrollment. Open enrollment invites change, and most traditional school districts hate change.
Campus budgets are set based on the number of kids enrolled in a certain school. School attendance boundaries allow for each campus to predict what those budgets will look like each year. Allowing families to choose what school they would want to attend would just screw everything up.
If families were allowed to choose their school, some schools would close. Some schools would be over-enrolled. Teachers would have to be moved, or worse yet let go. Bus routes would change. Central office would be a place where change would have to be embraced by staff members and monitored by leadership.
That might be too much work. It might be easier to keep everything the same, including where kids are allowed to go to school.
But research tells us that open enrollment is a good thing, and that school districts should be more open to it as a policy. Jude Schwalbach, a reporter for The 74 online, writes this week,
“Open enrollment policies that weaken residential assignment can significantly expand students’ options by letting them attend public school outside their assigned attendance zones. Parents and students can use open enrollment to find schools with open seats that offer the right academic fit, an escape from bullying, better commutes or a variety of other benefits.”
“Unsurprisingly, open enrollment is popular with parents. According to EdChoice’s March 2023 national survey data, 70% of parents with children in public schools are in favor of it. That support spans both sides of the political aisle, with 67% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans expressing support.”
“Unfortunately, school districts often oppose robust open enrollment proposals. The reasons range from fear of being ‘overwhelmed’ by nonresident, and presumably less affluent, students to concern that an exodus will siphon resources, force school closures and spur districts to compete with one another.”
“Fears of this sort, however, are overblown, as Gallup reported last year that 80% of parents say they are completely or somewhat satisfied with the quality of their children’s K-12 education. While open enrollment would let dissatisfied students transfer to new public schools, the vast majority don’t want to.”
“In fact, there are reasons for school districts to support open enrollment. It can provide an opportunity to attract new students, especially in the face of declining student populations caused by demographic changes or competition. For instance, Corey Ryan, a former school district administrator, used Texas’s open enrollment policy after his district lost students to charter and magnet schools. By implementing strategies such as launching specialized schools, his district gained 145 transfer students.”
“In Ohio, a 1996 study found the state’s open enrollment program promoted competition and improvement in rural school districts. More than two decades later, research by Fordham Institute suggested that high rates of rural Ohio districts are participating in the open enrollment program because they recognize it can help ‘attract more students and the accompanying state funding’ at a time of declining student rosters.”
“In California, a 2016 Legislative Analyst’s Office report found some districts that initially lost students to others through open enrollment then went on to improve, reduce the number of student transfers and even attract new transfer students. Five years later, the office reported that 78% of school districts participating in the voluntary program were small, rural and using open enrollment to ‘generate a notable share of their revenue.’ Without attracting more students and parents via open enrollment, some of these very small districts would not be fiscally viable.”
“A 2018 report by Ready Colorado found that a high percentage of students enrolled in some rural school districts had transferred from districts a long distance away because they were willing to make longer commutes for the schools of their choice. Some sought-after rural Texas districts post among the highest rates of inbound student transfers in the state, sustaining their enrollment levels.”
“Most recently, a 2023 EdChoice report found school district administrators in Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, and Florida believe open enrollment incentivizes them ‘to create new or enhance existing programs in order to increase and retain enrollment.”
“Ultimately, districts should embrace open enrollment as an important, straightforward school choice reform with wide-reaching benefits for the large number of students currently enrolled in traditional public schools.”
School districts should embrace open enrollment, but, in addition to the reasons listed at the beginning of this piece, the first time a star athlete “chooses” to attend a school outside of his or her attendance zone and that school in that district wins a state championship, then open enrollment is dead on arrival.
And finally, how can we get to “learner choice” when it comes to building personalized, meaningful learning plans for each young learner when we can’t even get to authentic “school choice”?
I’ll be away until Friday, June 2nd. Til then. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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