`Open Door’ series opens eyes as well

By Quad-City Times

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All schools are not created equal.

Nor should they be.

Admittedly, Iowa is moving toward a common curriculum. Parents and students should expect shared achievement goals regardless of race, income or ethnicity. No child should be left behind.

But every school experience unavoidably is - and should be - unique.

Students and teachers have different abilities, interests and personalities. Classroom dynamics differ within schools, and from year to year.

The Times investigative series, “The Open Door,” explored differences in one aspect of education - public school athletics. Some parents are choosing to enroll their children in schools with higher achieving sports programs, or where they have personal relationships with coaching staff. Research by reporters Aaron Brenner and Andrew Petersen showed 15 percent of Bettendorf varsity football players came from outside the district, far more than any other Quad-City school.

Any suspicion that neighboring district coaches might consider poaching prime players would be disturbing. But allowing families to choose the best school experiences for their children needs to be a goal shared by all education leaders, board members and parents.

The truth is, Iowa's open enrollment laws allow parents to select schools based on academic, athletic and many other school distinctions. Bettendorf welcomed 278 Davenport district students this year. And the district accepted 279 from neighboring Pleasant Valley. Bettendorf's football team has 60 or so kids. So this isn't just about football.

It's about choice.

We support school choice and Iowa's progressive open enrollment policies. They allow parents to enroll a child in a school that's closest to their day-care provider, or grandma's house. They allow parents to send their kids to an advanced music program; or a particularly capable science teacher; or their own alma mater; or to give their child a chance to play on a championship athletic team.

Those parents' personal reasons shouldn't matter. In Iowa, it doesn't. Iowa's open enrollment form asks many questions. But parents are never required to supply a reason for requesting a transfer.

Only in athletics is a transfer student participation restricted by school policy.

Could you imagine a district denying a transfer student drawn to a Davenport ROTC program from actually participating in ROTC for three months? Could you imagine a student transferring because of a preferred math or language teacher, then being banned from that class?

Even within athletics, open enrollment eligibility policies have different impact on different sports. The 90-day athletic ineligibility rule hits entirely on autumn sports that fall within the first three months of the school year. It has little effect on spring sport participants who could transfer every year at the start of the school year, then remain eligible to play when the season rolls around.

We understand the angst shared by Davenport school board member Nikki DeFauw at a recent United Neighbors/NAACP candidate forum. The incumbent seemed to express an open enrollment concern shared by the entire slate of Davenport candidates

“I'm personally challenged. When I first ran, I advocated for open enrollment. But I've come to realize some parents make decisions without ever crossing the threshold of our buildings. I think that's really a shame.”

Davenport parents' decisions resulted in 439 students leaving their home district this school year. Notably, Davenport's percentage of exiting open enrollment students is smaller than the percentage of those open enrolling out of either Pleasant Valley or Bettendorf.

Davenport Superintendent Art Tate laments any parent's choice to leave his district. But he defends the choice.

“Our job is to craft our schools and our products so people want to stay and come to our school system.”

“I love the fact someone would come to us for chemistry, arts or ROTC,” he said, citing examples of programs that draw students to his district.

He, like DeFauw, hopes families would make well-rounded transfer decisions not centered on a single aspect, particularly athletics. Those decisions require lots of information.

Tate came to Davenport from a district in Arizona forced to compete when the state introduced school vouchers. “I had a marketing department where we invested $1.5 million. I believe in choice. If people choose, they're more committed to it.

We're heartened to hear the frank discussion on school choice and parent empowerment sparked by “The Open Door” investigative series. The path toward more choice requires schools to share more information about their distinctions and competitive advantages. It requires administrators and staff unafraid of competition. It requires parents to research that information more deeply and make informed decisions on their child's achievement and growth, not just one narrow aspect of school experience.

But we're convinced it does not require arbitrarily limiting student participation in any school activity in hopes of restricting parent choice, limiting student achievement or compromising excellence.

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