Magnet Schools of America

 

For over forty years, magnet schools and programs have been working towards achieving diversity in public schools but now they are struggling to maintain federal grant funding in an ever-shrinking pool of resources. Charter schools, appearing first in the early 1990s and gathering momentum throughout the last decade, are playing an increasingly prominent role in education and the field of school choice. While both compete for funding, a recent article in Education Week quotes Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow at the Century Foundation as saying, "In Washington, all the attention has gone to charters." Some, like Gary Orfield, Civil Rights Director in Los Angeles, believe that the federal government should open the field for grant competitions, rather than allocating separate amounts of money for charter and magnet schools. For the full article, click here