Al Bundy;888661 wrote:Around 75% of the districts in Ohio offer enrollment. In the big picture, the number of kids who switch schools with open enrollment to play football is very small. However, the number of kids who transfer to private to schools to play football is also extremely small. Most of the kids who play football at private schools have been at that private school their entire high school career. I am a fan of an open enrollment school. Over the years, we have had a few football players come in during their high school career who played football. In the Youngstown area people complain about Ursuline and Mooney getting transfers, but the overwhelming majority of the players have been at those schools their entire high school career. The two biggest whiners on this site are fans of open enrollment public high schools who have both accepted more transfers than Ursuline or Mooney.
True, but if a star player transfers for the purpose of playing for a better team, it makes the new team markedly better and the prior team markedly worse. Secondly, if they're transferring to a smaller private school, the smaller private school will still stay small.
A small public school can't just kick out the dead weight and keep the B or better students. They can't kick out delinquents. A private school has the luxury of only taking good students that add positively to the school and not detract from it. That right there is the advantage. It may not even be a conscious effort by the school to get an advantage. But it still provides an advantage.
If any public school could just count their good students for enrollment and kick out the rest the schools would be much smaller and then the private advantage would be near non-existent. Students leave the bad public schools because the 'dead weight' as I call it have overrun that particular school. And the more the good students leave the worse the public school appears to be. Such as the situation in Youngstown. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. School is bad and gives out vouchers. The good students go to the private schools who want to. The bad students can't move because no school would want them to drag them down to their level. Therefore, the percentage of bad students at the public rises, necessitating even more 'corrective actions' against the public school. Meanwhile, the private school looks great because they skimmed off the best.
That's why the big city schools _rarely_ do well compared to their catholic school neighbors in almost any aspect from academics, athletics, scholarships, GPA, college enrollment, etc. Cincinnati: the best schools are catholic, Columbus the best schools are catholic, Cleveland the best schools are catholic, Youngstown, the best schools are catholic. In the smaller communities with less crime, higher literacy, better available jobs, less blight, etc the catholic schools don't do as well compared to publics. The smaller the community, the better it tends to run a public school and more desire from the student body to stay in that school than jump to private. Also, in many places there isn't a reasonable option for a private school and the public is all you have without exorbitant travel.
As for OE, it can bring better students in, but it can't get the bad students out. So, it's the regular enrollment in the city plus the few extra you can bring in from other districts. You're still not reducing your overall number unless you have extenuating circumstances that make your school the sinking ship that the good students are trying to flee. In which case it's unlikely that you'll be attracting any outside students to offset the total lost.
I still say the best idea for counting enrollment:
First, every multi-high school district must draw sub-district lines so the number of students in each high school is roughly equated with the number of ALL STUDENTS in the new sub-districts. Every single-high school district simply counts ALL STUDENTS in their district (per sport, it would be males in grades 9-11, etc).
Second, every non-public school gets 'anchored' to the district or sub-district in which their physical high school building resides in.
Third, each high school counts x1 each student they get from within their district or sub-district. Each high school counts x2 each student they get from outside their district or sub-district.
Fourth, for each student in the district or sub-district that a school loses to ANY other school they -1x
For instance:
Sub-district A has 589 male students 9-11 this year assigned to High School A. Subtotal is 589 enrollment.
Now, they bring in 58 out-of-sub-district students to add 58x2=116 to the total. Subtotal is now 705 enrollment.
Now, 137 male students 9-11 do not attend High School A, but either attend private or another public elsewhere -1x137=-137. Total is now 568
Catholic School B resides in Sub-district A which has 589 male students 9-11 this year assigned to High School A. Subtotal is 589.
Now, they bring in 131 out-of-sub-district students to add 131x2=262 to the total. Subtotal is now 851.
Now, of the 589, 473 students in the sub-district do not attend Catholic School B (either attending HS-A or an outside school), -1x473=-473. Total is now 378
The breakdown is:
HS-A has 452 in sub-district and 58 from outside the sub-district for a total of 510 actual students.
CS-B has 116 in sub-district and 131 from outside the sub-district for a total of 247 atual students.
Their enrollment total reflect where they're getting their students from. Whether they're the ones they're stuck with or ones they've attracted (i.e., good students from out of the district). If a catholic school truly is drawing from their minimal geographic base, their number won't rise. If they draw from all over, each student from far away counts x2. And this would go for any OE school equally as well. If you draw in 50 OE 9-11 male students, they count double for your enrollment total.
