Boundary Crossings: A Matter of Residency - inter-school district student enrollment

School Administrator, Nov, 2000 by Kimberly Reeves

Kimberly Reeves

Cities, Suburbs Encourage Transfers

The 23 suburban districts surrounding Milwaukee have used a state law intended to desegregate white and nonwhite students for 25 years to allow transfers across district lines.

Until last year, Chapter 220, as the state law is known, was "the only voluntary two-way state-supported non-court-mandated integration program in the country," says John Linehan, superintendent of the 2,300-student Shorewood School District, one of the participating school systems.

Under Chapter 220, children in the predominantly minority Milwaukee school district are eligible for seats in the suburban districts and students from predominantly white suburban districts may transfer to Milwaukee's schools, even its specialized magnet programs. Approximately 17 percent of Shorewood's students come from Milwaukee. Shorewood sends almost two dozen children into the Milwaukee school system each year.

Nearly 5,500 students this year have transferred under Chapter 220.

Linehan believes the permissive legislation is accomplishing what was intended: integrating without mandating. Children from various backgrounds have filtered into his school system to the point where diversity is part of Shorewood and its community. Minority parents now move directly into the Shorewood community to attend school. Barriers, real or perceived, have been removed from parents' minds.

"Our school district is now probably 30 percent minority, and the community has a great comfort level with that," Linehan says. "I think parents got to know each other as friends, and I think that evaporated away a lot of the psychological resistance to integration."

Chapter 220 was only the first among a number of enrollment options Wisconsin now offers. Mary Jo Cleaver, who runs Wisconsin's public school open enrollment program, says Wisconsin is in its fourth year of statewide open enrollment with few serious issues. The program has been received enthusiastically by parents and with varied reactions from superintendents.

"There are some pluses for superintendents," Cleaver says. "You know that the students you have want to be there. For some school districts that are suffering declining enrollment, it could help them financially. And we also limit the loss of students to a school district, up to 10 percent. Right now there are probably only a few school districts that lose any more than 3 or 4 percent."

Committed in St. Louis

And given the choice, some school districts want to continue interdistrict transfers. The federal government forced the St. Louis school district into a voluntary interdistrict transfer program 17 years ago to resolve a desegregation case. When the case was settled last year, however, school districts were so committed to the voluntary transfer concept that they formed their own non-profit corporation. In three months, the St. Louis public schools and 16 of the predominantly white school districts in surrounding St. Louis County launched Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp.