but they must enter a lottery if spots are limited. Sounds like hunger games.
Open enrollment has been the successful model to provide racial balance without forced busing in many areas. Students are assigned to neighborhood schools. Districts are redrawn to downplay racial divisions but students go to the schools closest to them. Students who prefer a different school are allowed to enroll in those different schools up to a point. Some schools are just in higher demand, so a lottery is established to create the means of awarding scarce openings in as unbiased a manner as is possible under the circumstance. Schools in historically troubled areas that are deemed less desirable are made desirable by providing specialized educational opportunities in fields of study that are popular and in demand. These are the so-called “magnet schools,” which presumably draw from the student base across the city or county, due to the specialized coursework offered. It works to some extent but usually not as well as intended, because parents are fearful of sending their children into areas with higher crime and that’s where magnet schools invariably are located.