Indeed it may be naive to hope that restricting donations will encourage political action that could benefit all schools. Simultaneously, independent schools exist at a much lower funding level than district operated schools. This is in spite of the fact that many of the existing independent schools in Eugene serve students that are difficult and expensive for the district run schools to serve. We believe that education must provide an environment in which all students are respected and have equal access and opportunity. We believe that school communities must recognize and respond positively to diversity.
All schools have an equal ability to set class size and enrollment targets.
The School Choice Task Group has identified enrollment caps as an issue that impacts equity. Generally, alternative schools have enrollment caps and neighborhood schools do not. The task group identified this as a core issue but did not attempt to provide solutions. Enrollment numbers are linked to staffing levels and those schools that are able to cap their enrollments enjoy stable and predictable staffing. A core program can be developed with the understanding that staffing levels will remain steady and stable as long as enrollment does not drop.