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Education group eyes system for 1 citywide school application

WHILE the number of district-run and parochial schools shrinks and the city's charter-school population booms, a group of education advocates is looking at a plan to implement a single, citywide enrollment process.

Parents and students watch the enrollment lottery at the MaST Community Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia on Tuesday, March 19, 2013.  ( Yong Kim / Staff Photographer )
Parents and students watch the enrollment lottery at the MaST Community Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia on Tuesday, March 19, 2013. ( Yong Kim / Staff Photographer )Read more

WHILE the number of district-run and parochial schools shrinks and the city's charter-school population booms, a group of education advocates is looking at a plan to implement a single, citywide enrollment process.

The result could alter Philadelphia's educational landscape.

The plan, still in the early stages, would involve students' filling out one application that would place them on lists at district, charter and parochial schools in the city, said Miles Wilson, director of the Great Schools Compact for the Philadelphia Schools Partnership. Private schools are not part of the current plan, but the group is working on also including them.

Under the combined enrollment, one lottery for seats would be held. Currently, parents and students must navigate a complex application process that can include applying for several spots at high-performing schools and hoping for the best.

"It's too complicated for parents now to apply to too many schools," said Lori Shorr, chief education officer for the Mayor's Office and a representative on the compact.

"Not every parent has the luxury to do all this work," she said. "This program is more equitable and gives better access to parents for all the educational options in the city."

The plan could apply to students starting high school in the fall of 2014. The compact would then expand universal enrollment to grades K-8, a proposition unwelcome by some critics.

"That concerns me a lot . . . for such young kids to apply to go to school. I'm just not sure if this process is applicable to this age group," said Jenny Lowman, staff attorney with the Education Law Center.

New York City and Denver have similar common enrollment, but neither seems to include Catholic schools.

Carmella Cappetti, whose daughter attends Franklin Learning Center, was concerned about the plan after learning of it from a Daily News reporter. She said parents are going to think that Catholic schools and any private schools that may be included in the lottery will be free.

"There's going to have to be a lot of clarification for parents on that," Cappetti said. "This is really going to confuse parents. . . . They're not going to think they have to pay tuition."

The key to the plan, Shorr and other education advocates say, is the participation by the city's 84 charter schools, which are public and free to attend but which run their own lotteries.

It's unclear how many charters have committed to common enrollment, but some are thinking about it.

"It's so early. . . . We're waiting to get some sort of answers before we say this is something we want to do," said the chief executive of KIPP Philadelphia Schools, Marc Mannella.