Used to be competition for Pittsburgh magnet schools (Liberty: live, cities)

[I_Like_Spam]

The link below describes the week long lines and tent cities for parents seeking to enroll their offspring in Pittsburgh's magnet schools back in the day. Starting in the mid-80's, it continued until 1995 at least, because that's when I lived in Shadyside and saw the Liberty School tent city.

Now, its just a lottery, and I wonder how that reflects on the schools. Back in the day, parents had to sacrifice to get their kids into top magnet schools.
COMPETITION DESPARATE FOR PITTSBURGH SCHOOLS - NYTimes.com

[theta_sigma]

There's more magnet schools now than there used to be. More slots.

[Moby Hick]

I still have trouble believing they used to run a school system that way. It just seems nuts. I suppose that technically it's a parents making a sacrifice for their kids, but in the aggregate it looks like a terrible waste of hours.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

I still have trouble believing they used to run a school system that way. It just seems nuts. I suppose that technically it's a parents making a sacrifice for their kids, but in the aggregate it looks like a terrible waste of hours.

There also used to be racial quotas in the magnet system, which ensured that no more than 50% of any school's enrollment would be black. The purported reason of this was to stop white flight from the magnet school system, ensuring integration. In practice though a lot more black parents than white parents applied for slots, meaning black kids were put on waitlists, while white parents had no trouble getting their kids enrolled in any school they wanted. Which was why the Supreme Court struck it down as segregation a bit more than ten years ago.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by eschaton

. In practice though a lot more black parents than white parents applied for slots, meaning black kids were put on waitlists, while white parents had no trouble getting their kids enrolled in any school they wanted. .

I don't think those details were necessarily correct- at least not in 1994-95 when I saw the Tent City on Elmer St.

As I remember, it was mostly white parents queueing up for the Liberty magnet, so they apparently were the ones having trouble (at least at that school).