An appeals courts ruled recently that Los Angeles can continue to use race as an admissions factor at specialized magnet schools despite California's ban on race preferences in government programs, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
About 56,000 of Los Angeles' 700,000 students attend 162 magnet schools which concentrate on specific fields like math and science or the arts, and often have long waiting lists.
Admission to highly sought schools is based on several factors, including a student's attendance at a predominantly minority school. The district's overall white enrollment is only 9 percent, but magnet schools maintain white enrollments of 30 to 40 percent, and give preference to students on the waiting list who allow them to keep that ratio. The ruling can be read at www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B205943.PDF.
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