BOOKER T. BROKEN

HOW SUBURBANITES CHEAT THEIR WAY INTO BOOKER T. WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING AND VISUAL ARTS

“I absolutely see evidence of students who misrepresented their real residence to gain admission to our magnets.”

— Stephanie Elizalde, Dallas ISD’s chief of school leadership, who oversees instruction at DISD’s 230 campuses

LIE ABOUT YOUR HOME ADDRESS. Compel co-workers or friends to put your name on their utility bill. Or just rent an apartment in Uptown for your son or daughter, even if the kid never actually lives there.

Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the nationally renowned public magnet school, is known for funneling dancers to The Juilliard School, churning out Presidential Scholars in the Arts and grooming music stars, such as Norah Jones and Erykah Badu. The high school is funded by Dallas Independent School District taxpayers and reserved for students who live in the DISD attendance zone, according to school board regulations.

But Advocate research shows neither campus nor district officials make much of an effort to verify that applicants live where they say they do. And once kids cheat their way into magnet schools, DISD generally doesn’t review their residency again.

Meanwhile, talented DISD hopefuls who live within DISD attendance boundaries are denied entry to the school and left wondering what might have been.

In the wake of the “Aunt Becky” national college cheating scandal, take a look at this year’s freshman recruits to the Booker T. dance conservatory.

In spring 2018, 55 eighth-graders received coveted “I am Booker T.” acceptance letters. At the time they applied, only 20 were attending a DISD middle school. Another 28 — half of the dancers admitted — were attending public schools in the suburbs, based on their middle school transcripts.

Yet as part of their application paperwork, 53 of the 55 dancers

“It makes Booker T. a school for rich kids.” turned in utility bills purporting to live in Dallas.

In fact, all but three of the 227 freshmen in Booker T.’s dance, music, theater and visual arts academies used a Dallas address when they applied. Yet 100 of those students have never attended a DISD middle school, including 39 who attended public middle schools in the suburbs.

Juxtapose that with the 56 DISD students who applied to attend the school and were denied entry in spring 2018, along with another 144 DISD students who were rejected as “unqualified” by the magnet school audition judges.

Based on DISD numbers, children from suburban families who ignore the district’s rules have a better chance of gaining access to Booker T. than DISD’s own students.

Sure, it makes Dallas taxpayers proud that one of our public schools annually ranks among the best in the country.

But how proud should we be knowing that every suburban kid taking a spot at our nationally ranked magnet school could be stealing that opportunity from a deserving Dallas kid who played by DISD’s own rules?

And lost.

Qualified (at least 70/100 audition score)

An Oak Cliff mom remembers an information session at Booker T. in 2013 when parents were told in-district students take precedence. She also recalls a gathering where the head of the theater academy said, “We don’t check addresses.”

— Andrea Ramirez, whose two sons were theater students at Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy, a Dallas ISD middle school, before attending Booker T. She met families who drove to Booker T. daily from Little Elm, Garland and Greenville, Texas. Her sons ultimately returned to their neighborhood high school, Sunset.

“We’ve just followed the district policy, and we’re checking the utility bill as it’s presented.”

— Booker T. principal Scott Rudes

— Lisa Ormsbee, a longtime Dallas ISD parent whose daughter was wait-listed at Booker T.

—Stephanie Elizalde, Dallas ISD’s chief of school leadership who oversees instruction at DISD’s 230 campuses

These quotes are excerpted from the full story. Read it at oakcliff.advocatemag.com.