Charter school advocates push enrollment shift in Oakland

Deep-pocketed education reformers have set their sights on Oakland, where they are pushing changes to the school assignment system used by parents that would include charter schools as well as the district’s traditional public schools.

Advocates for school choice and charters — including the New Schools Venture Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — have supported similar common enrollment systems in Denver, New Orleans and most recently in Boston.

Superintendent Antwan Wilson wants this kind of one-stop shopping to help families find the best public school — traditional or charter — for their children.

“It is our obligation to the public to create a level playing field so that parents can have access to these schools,” said district spokesman Troy Flint.

While a formal resolution and vote isn’t expected until January, the school board is scheduled to hold a study session Wednesday, the first opportunity it has had to review and address the idea.

Critics have spoken at several community meetings, including one Monday night, saying they are concerned that common enrollment would mean using district funds to market charter schools to prospective families.

The current proposal heading to the board includes a broad overhaul of the student assignment system, improving technology and adding staffing and other resources to ensure parents can access — in several languages — the system online, at every school and at satellite enrollment centers across the city.

The common enrollment effort is supported by Oakland’s Educate 78, a nonprofit group focused on increasing access to quality schools, including the creation of new charter schools.

The organization, funded by charter advocates including Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, New Schools Venture Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies, has covered the $300,000 in costs associated with the development of the proposal and initial public outreach, including consultants and community meetings.

[...] the superintendent believes having charter schools in the enrollment process will prevent the charters from gaming the system, enrolling a lower proportion of English learners, students with special needs or other high-need students than district schools.

Across the country, the idea of common enrollment is coming from market-driven reform groups, which believe that parental choice and competition for students will force low-performing and under-enrolled schools to innovate and improve.