Yesterday we held our enrollment lottery, a requirement by law when a charter school receives more lottery forms than it has spaces available.
In total, we received 249 lottery forms for the 155 spots in our incoming 6th grade. 51 of those spaces were automatically taken by siblings of current students, leaving only 104 spots for 198 hopeful families.
I do not enjoy Lottery Day. It isn’t right that in the year 2015, in the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world, the quality of a child’s education should depend upon the random chance of a name being pulled out of a box.
However, Lottery Day is a good reminder of several things:
Our school, and charter schools in general, are really radical in the history of education. Until about twenty years ago, parents had to either send their children to their neighborhood school or find a way to pay for a private school. Our school give families a real choice.
Our community chooses us. When names were pulled out yesterday, there were shouts and even tears of joy. As names were pulled and added lower and lower on the waiting list, there were tears of a different kind.
In total, we received 249 lottery forms for the 155 spots in our incoming 6th grade. 51 of those spaces were automatically taken by siblings of current students, leaving only 104 spots for 198 hopeful families.
I do not enjoy Lottery Day. It isn’t right that in the year 2015, in the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world, the quality of a child’s education should depend upon the random chance of a name being pulled out of a box.
However, Lottery Day is a good reminder of several things:
Our school, and charter schools in general, are really radical in the history of education. Until about twenty years ago, parents had to either send their children to their neighborhood school or find a way to pay for a private school. Our school give families a real choice.
Our community chooses us. When names were pulled out yesterday, there were shouts and even tears of joy. As names were pulled and added lower and lower on the waiting list, there were tears of a different kind.