How is a charter school different from a magnet school?
Magnet programs were federally mandated as an integration device during a time when there wasn't a lot of integration going on in public schools. Charter schools were not created for that specific reason. So you'll find magnet schools in traditional public schools, but you won't find magnet schools in charter schools. Magnet schools are schools where you are purposely trying to achieve a balanced racial diversity. Charter schools, because they must enrol any student who wants to attend doesn't have to achieve a balance in its diversity, and some schools because of the neighbourhood they're located in, charter schools can be all Latino for example, all African American. In other cases, charter schools, because of where they happen to be located are very diverse. But again, unlike magnet schools, they don't have to achieve a certain ethnic balance. In magnet schools, because they're trying to achieve ethnic and racial balance, students who apply to it receive a point system based on their ethnicity for example and based on the number of years they've been in the traditional public school system, and the more points you have, the more likely you are to be able to attend a magnet school. It's very different from a charter school where any student can attend, any student can apply, you don't receive extra points because you happen to be of a certain ethnicity or a certain racial background or enrolled within a certain geographic area. Any student can apply at a charter school. Magnet schools, again, you sort of get criteria and if you meet the criteria, if you fit the criteria, you get more points for that criteria, and then they sort of pick the kids that have the most points. That's how you get enrolled in a magnet school. So parents who are savvy about how the criteria works are able to start to apply early, get their kids in to apply to schools where they know they're not many students who look like their children, for example, to be able to get more points. Again, this is different from charter schools. Anybody can attend any school at any part of the city, any part of a neighbourhood or any neighbourhood.
