A student's per-pupil funding moves, too. Dombrowski said many parents have been intrigued by Royal Oak's magnet programs for gifted and talented students, located at Mark Twain and Franklin elementary schools. Some were parents who had previously sent their children to private schools. That's one advantage of schools of choice, Dombrowski said. Oak Park Superintendent Alex Bailey said he neither supports nor opposes the choice program, but instead calls himself a realist.
Oak Park is the only district that borders Wayne County that has accepted Detroit students.
They left flyers about the district on every home's door and tried to talk to parents of school-age children. We have found some families who were paying a lot for private schools because they thought they were getting something better.