Most kids attend the school closest to where they live. It's often the only choice.

This chapter of Ed100 focuses on the where of learning. Other chapters focus on matters of who, why, when, what, or how. The 13 lessons in this chapter explore the physical and metaphorical places where learning happens, or is meant to.

What is a local school?

As we've already pointed out, the history of public schools in America is tangled up in the history of America. The US Constitution doesn't mention education at all, so responsibility lies with each state. California, like most states, delegates most of its responsibility to a geographically-defined quilt of school districts, from tiny and rural to huge and urban. Los Angeles Unified School District, America’s second-largest, serves close to half a million students.

Wherever you live in California, your address belongs to the geographical domain of one public school district. In that district, your kids have the right to attend school at no cost. If the district operates more than one public school serving your grade level, which school is yours? Districts have the power to answer that question, and do so in different ways, which we will explore. You might also have the option to enroll in a public charter school, if they operate in your district and have open seats. A school transfer might be possible, too. But it all starts with your address.

Why? Here's the simplified version…

Historically, local taxes funded local schools

Until the 1970s, local public schools in California were funded by local property taxes. School boards were very powerful at that time — notably, they set property tax rates, which varied from one district to another. Where you lived determined which school district could tax you, and at what rate. It was a massively inequitable system. Rich communities with high property values could raise funds for their schools easily, even if they set tax rates low. Poor communities, by contrast, were out of luck. They couldn't raise enough money to run good schools no matter how high they set their rates.

Today, districts are funded through a formula

It was an unfair system. As Ed100 Chapter 8 will explain, California's courts spurred voters to overhaul it in the 1970s, especially with the passage of Proposition 13 and Proposition 98. These initiatives amended the state constitution, severing the connection between local property tax revenue and school funding.

Virtually all school districts in California now depend primarily on state income taxes, not local property taxes, to fund their schools. The budget of each school district is calculated on the basis of a consistent statewide formula that involves the number of students attending and their needs. Property wealth plays no role in it. Ed100 chapter 8 gets into more detail about the formula (LCFF), and about the school finance system. But for this lesson, it's enough to understand that school districts are mostly funded on the basis of attendance.

To get the funding they need, districts and charter schools count noses. They need students to show up. In principle, they shouldn't have a serious financial reason to care about where students live, but old habits die hard. Establishing proof of residence is standard operating procedure for schools, even if they have open seats. If you want to cross a line to attend a school outside of a district's territory, it can be complicated. We'll take that up in Lesson 5.2.

What were red lines?

In the Ed100 blog
Old laws still segregate our schools

School district boundaries and the attendance areas within them reflect some ugly history. Not so long ago, racist laws in California determined where people could rent or buy a home and where kids could go to school. Policies known as red lines left scars you can still see in school district maps and school catchment areas.

Parents, students, and real estate brokers tend to care a lot about school maps — they determine which children are allowed to go to where. If you live on this this side of the tracks, you go to this school. If you live on the other side, you go to that one.

Gloria Romero, a former California State Senator, calls zip codes "five digits of separation" Some parents will go to great lengths to get their kids into the “right” school. To get away from the “wrong” school or into the “right” one, some parents will lie about their address, even at the risk of being sent to jail for it.

How are students assigned to schools?

The rules for school enrollment, assignments and transfers within each school district are determined by that district. Some districts assign students to schools with a map alone. Some use a lottery. Some provide preferences for siblings to attend the same school. The rules vary a lot and they are entirely local.

These systems matter to families. If they don't like their school and they have the money, some families will spend huge sums to move to a different home. Families time their moves to minimize disruption, even if it costs more. In wealthy areas, real estate agents are experts about local schools and school assignment policies.

Race and school assignment

The role of race in school assignment has long been a matter of critical national concern. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that to separate children in school “from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may effect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” The court held, therefore, that “separate” education was “inherently unequal.”

Overall, America is a diverse country with people from all kinds of backgrounds. But the diversity looks more impressive from a distance than it does up close. Many schools are not diverse at all.

In honor of the 65th anniversary of the Brown decision, the Civil Rights Project at UCLA published an impressive report, Harming our Common Future. Among all of America’s states, the report found, “California is the most segregated for Latinos, where 58% attend intensely segregated schools, and the typical Latino student is in a school with only 15% white classmates.”

Visualizing segregation and its effects

The Urban Institute has invested considerable creativity in the work of making segregation visible through data and maps. Search their work to see patterns in your area.

In a series of huge economic studies, Opportunity Insights and the US Census Bureau partnered to create the Opportunity Atlas, a free, interactive mapping tool that "estimates children’s chances of climbing the income ladder for 70,000 neighborhoods across America." The tool helps reveal the role that school districts continue to play in blocking social mobility in America.

Schools are central to patterns of social connectedness or isolation. Work by Raj Chetty and others using Facebook data establishes that these patterns have lasting consequences including economic and civic outcomes. By these measures, those in California's central valley are particularly isolated.

Education in rural schools

Educational results in California's rural districts severely lag results in more urban districts, a topic investigated by EdSource in 2018. Follow the link for an interactive map comparing the rates at which high school graduates attended colleges in the CSU and UC systems.

Buses and school integration

The Brown decision compelled many school districts to integrate the schools within their boundaries. It was a difficult and disruptive order, because many families live in segregated communities. In some large districts such as Los Angeles, for a time desegregation orders required children to ride buses to schools outside their own neighborhood.

It's important to know that from an education point of view, desegregation worked. Overall, more students did better in school. But forced busing was widely unpopular from the start. Voters amended the state constitution in 1979 to end it.

Over time, additional court decisions (especially Milliken v. Bradley) ended court-ordered busing in America more broadly.

The end of busing did not signal the end of racial isolation, which by some measures has grown worse according to Harming California's Future, a 2021 report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. For a summary of recent Federal civil rights rulings related to education see the UCLA Civil Rights Project documentation of McFarland v. Jefferson County Public Schools & Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 ( PICS)

Not every student attends the school nearest home. Not all students have a choice of schools, but some do. Does choice tend to make segregation better or worse? Read on to lesson 5.2 to find out... but first take a moment to pass the quiz below and earn your ticket.

This page was updated March 2024