There’s a proposal to change the lottery system that determines which public elementary schools students are assigned to in San Francisco.

On Thursday, KRON4 talked to one of the school board members behind the possible overhaul.

“After years of failed goals and frustrated parents, we’ve got to accept that the lottery system isn’t working,” San Francisco School Board Member and supervisor candidate for District 6 Matt Haney said. “It’s time to move on.” 

He is talking about the school assignment system that parents brace themselves for when enrolling their kindergartners into city public schools.

“The lottery system was created with specific goals and it has accomplished none of them. It hasn’t desegregated our schools. It hasn’t provided equity in choice. And it hasn’t been transparent or accountable to families,” Haney said. 

He and two other board members are pushing a system that would be centered on community-based assignments.

“We need to be able to say based on where you live, you can be either certain that there’s one school or a set of schools that you’re gonna have access to and you can rely on that,” Haney said.

The executive director for parents for public schools is still studying the proposal, but she did say that the current system has mixed reviews from parents.

“So, for some families, it works really well, and they’re really grateful to have the opportunity to have the school choice and to have and to make decisions that are right for their children and their families,” Teresa Arriaga said. “For other people, they end up navigating the system, it could be very complicated, understanding how to rank their schools, where to submit the application, even getting the application in on time could be a barrier.”

This resolution to revamp the school assignment system will be introduced at Tuesday’s school board meeting and voted on sometime in the fall.

But even if it passes, this process is still far from over. There would need to be parent input and analysis to determine how the new system would work.

It is a process that would take at least three years before it’s put in place.

“Every parent deserves a simple, predictable, and transparent school assignment process,” Haney said. “This is one of the first experiences families have with the district and despite our best intentions, there are serious problems surrounding the effectiveness and fairness of the process we have now.” 

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