Boulder Open Enrollment

Last night Dave and I went with his Dad to see a documentary about Columbine Elementary school. No, this is not the Columbine school of the shootings, this is our neighborhood elementary school down the street from our house where Dave attended school as a kid.

In the early 1990's, a law was passed giving parents the right to open enroll their children in the school of their choice. This means that rather than attending your neighborhood school, you apply to the school of your choice. In Boulder, this has caused a strange phenomenon. In a town where the population is primarily upper class and about 95% white, Columbine Elementary is now 80% Hispanic and about the same percentage qualify for government assistance/lunch aid. I can't remember the exact number they gave but I think they said that about 90% of white children in the neighborhood open enroll to other schools.

I'm not going to get into the debate here about whether or not we should send our child to Columbine Elementary. There is a lot to think about, I am still undecided and have at least 5 years to think it over. But, I do think that having an open enrollment system in a town like Boulder causes serious problems. This is what is to blame for the segregation in the schools. Rather than having parents involved and dedicated to the well being of their neighborhood schools, parents now just switch them to the next school over with higher test scores. In a small, homogeneous town like Boulder there just is not a huge difference in the quality of a school, until you begin to open enroll students and create schools with segregation and huge disparities in wealth.

They are in talks now to spend 8 million dollars for a remodel of Columbine. This is not going to solve the deeper issues here. I am going to hope and pray that the open enrollment system is gone by the time Samantha goes to elementary school. It has made me begin to think about bringing up a child and how to teach by example while still keeping your child's best interests at heart. But for now, I think I'll go back to worrying about my birthing classes before I stress about kindergarten.