They cost money. They take resources and smart kids and parents away from neighborhood schools. The role of magnet schools is also under debate in Montgomery, where the district devotes 11 schools solely to magnet programs, has four centers for gifted children and offers several specialized academies. John Hoven, a parent activist from Silver Spring, said that communities in Montgomery are moving to take magnet seats away from students from outside the neighborhood asschools become more crowded and resources scarce. They have little incentive to open schools to outsiders.
Schools have been overcrowded for years, so they have good reasons for keeping kids out.
Unlike Prince George's, which was under a court order to desegregate its schools, Montgomery developed its magnet schools and a transfer program as voluntary ways to encourageracial integration. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-based transfer policy was unconstitutional. The school board, however, recommended cutting or deferring other programs Monday night. Prince George's Superintendent Iris T. Metts declared her support for magnets when she arrived in July 1999, but she, too, has run into resistance. Montessori parents then asked for Matthew Henson Elementary in Palmer Park, which has a Montessori magnet for about half of the school's 584 students.