A local battle between school districts

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I thought this might be of interest to some of you parents out there. A couple of school districts in my area are doing battle over head counts; one of them is strictly worried about money and is competing on a base level IMO while the other has worked to achieve academic excellence over the years which has therefore lured many people to transfer in. The first school, Reynolds School District, recently threatened to recall all the transfer students attending Corbett School District because their numbers keep dropping and numbers equate to government funding. A similar battle took place between Corbett and the Oregon Trail District last year and many parents were angered by Oregon Trail's lack of concern for students in their pursuit of cash.

My argument is that if Reynolds and Oregon Trail would emulate Corbett they wouldn't have to resort to such shenanigans but the Corbett superintendant pulled a fast one by starting a charter school. Whether this move was a purposeful reaction to the attack or an inadvertent one is unknown (I believe it was puposeful) but the results speak volumes. Now, rather than Reynolds and Oregon Trail getting their students back most of them are staying and several hundred additional parents have applied to the Corbett Charter School and the other schools are left holding the bag. This feat was accomplished by nothing more than a word-of-mouth campaign and after all the dust has settled there are still more than 100 parents on the waiting list to get into Corbett.

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2009/04/corbett_goes_charter_to_keep_t.html