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year, you become a focus for us because we’re coming to get your kids.”

WHAT’S THE POINT OF MAGNETS?

So are Dallas ISD magnet schools for poor Dallas students who need access to opportunities, as Morrison-Lane hopes, or are they inexpensive surrogate private schools for middle- and upper-class students — no matter where they live — who want access to more options?

“When you hear ‘TAG,’ a visceral reaction is to go to the best of the best,” says Dallas ISD Trustee Miguel Solis. Same for a school such as Booker T., he says, “the best of the best musicians,” and so on.

What’s “perplexing,” Solis says, is “trying to identify a way to ensure all children have fair and equal access to those schools from across the district,” Solis says.

“The idea of out-of-district kids bypassing Dallas ISD until they get into a magnet school and taking the slot of a DISD student is inequitable,” Solis says.

“If we are robbing some of our children and boxing them out to the credit of others, that needs to change.”

Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa calls it “an issue of concern for us, but it’s a complex issue … There’s not going to be a silver bullet on this.

“One thing we don’t want to do is poke a giant in the eye,” he says. “We don’t want to mess up our magnets that are really successful, but at the same time, all of our students deserve to have access to all of those programs.”

He mentions the district’s new collegiate academies, which garnered 2,000 applications for 800 spots at “some very tough high schools,” and the district’s new public school choice offerings that “we are really ramping up.”

“Don’t be surprised if we see a way to address the issue from that regard, not from a deficit but from an abundance,” Hinojosa says. “There’s a great appetite by the board to offer more programs like this.”

It won’t be in time, however, to make a difference for Than Zaw Oo. After being passed over by Booker T., he stayed at Conrad, which houses one of the new collegiate academies. Turns out, he was a year too old to enroll in the collegiate academy, too.

Instead, Zaw Oo has taken up an interest in film, says Morrison-Lane, and he’s being mentored by a professional in the community.

“Now, will he become an artist? I don’t know,” she says.

Every year, as she guides her students through the magnet application process, she witnesses their disappointment when the rejection letters are delivered. They’re “devastated, embarrassed, ashamed,” she says. “I think they feel like they’re not worthy of it.”

Morrison-Lane is convinced the system is broken. All she can do is navigate the nuances, crack the codes and hope that, maybe next year, she can help some of her deserving students find their way into the “fortunate few.”

“Now does that help the other hundreds of kids who are in Tasby? No,” she says. Nor does it help the other hundreds of thousands of kids in Dallas ISD.

“I wish every other kid could get that shot,” she says.

The barriers, though, are as high as the stakes. Morrison-Lane wrote an oped piece for the Dallas Morning News this past spring on “how to navigate the DISD application maze,” which was less of a how-to and more of a scathing review.

In it, she wrote: “I have to wonder what we are really trying to achieve with magnet schools. Are they truly an opportunity for our poorest students to move forward?

“Or are they designed for middle-class parents in the Dallas district to access a high-quality education for their children?”

Discover Dallas Isd

Saturday, Dec. 3, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 South Polk dallasisd.org/discoverdallasisd

Historically, the school district has hosted an annual fair featuring all of its magnet schools so that families could peruse the options. Last year, the fair was expanded to include the district’s new “choice” schools, which are similar to magnets but don’t have admission requirements.

This year, not just magnets and choice schools, but all 228 DISD campuses will be represented, showcasing information on their pre-kindergarten and dual-language programs, collegiate academies, International Baccalaureate, Montessori curriculum, career and technology, and more.

Admission is free and because the event attracts thousands of people, the district requests that families attend according to their student’s last name, either 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (A-L) or 12:30-4 p.m. (M-Z).