Today, students are assigned to public schools based on where they live – and this practice separates children from the education that is best for them.
A new report from yes. every kid., authored by Halli Faulkner, senior legislative drafter, outlines principles and policies that states can implement to empower families to choose the school that works for their children, free of archaic and exclusionary boundary lines. The report also includes a 50-state scan of barriers to equal public school access.
Many school district boundaries today mirror redlined housing maps from the 1930s and 1940s. Today, a number of school district boundaries around the country are still drawn along these highly segregated socioeconomic lines. For example, coveted Gorrie Elementary in Tampa, Florida, has an attendance zone that largely replicates the exclusionary pattern of the redlining map from the New Deal era over 80 years ago. This is hardly the exception in American cities today.
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With the 70th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in public schools based on race, this is simply unacceptable. Every kid deserves access to the public school that best serves their needs regardless of race, home address, socioeconomic status, ability, or the location of the school.
If schools may discriminate based on residential address, public schools are not public. To correct this injustice, the report offers three policy changes to help transform education in every state and empower more families to attend the school that works best for their needs.
Prohibit Address Discrimination
All students should have access to all public schools and not be discriminated against due to their home address. Idaho became the first state to prohibit discrimination based on residential address in 2023.
Decriminalize Address Sharing
No family should be subject to criminal penalties for doing the best for their kids. But today, 24 states and the District of Columbia criminalize families for enrolling their kids in a public school that works for them but is outside of their assigned attendance zone. Only one state, Connecticut, has explicitly decriminalized sharing an address to enroll in a neighboring public school.
Create Mandatory Open Enrollment
Education is a public good. School districts should be required to participate in open enrollment and accept all students, regardless of zip code, family income, or ability. Only sixteen states mandate that public schools are available to every kid. It is possible to have an abundance of excellent public schools that meet the needs of the families who attend them.
The idea of opening school boundaries is popular. A national YouGov poll asked Americans if they support empowering students to access any public school in their state, regardless of home address or socioeconomic status, and 84% agreed. The poll also found that two-thirds of Americans — including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans — support ending residential school assignments.
