Magnet schools have several distinguishing charac-
teristics: an enrollment policy that opens the school
to students beyond the normal, limited geographic
area; a student body that enrolls by choice; and a cur-
riculum based on a specific instructional method or
theme (for example, science or art). Magnet schools
in the 1980’s were assisted by federal funding un-
der the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(1965). This funding gave the federal government
leverage in determining how the schools would
function. Although they were conceived as a means
to desegregate the American public school popula-
tion, the schools were instructed by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education not to set racial quotas to deter-
mine enrollment. The department believed that,
although racial segregation had been harmful, race
should be used only as a last resort in determining
admission to the schools.
Some Notable Magnet Schools Many school dis-
tricts, especially in urban areas, sought to limit or re-
verse the racial segregation of their schools. There-
fore, once funding was made available for magnet
schools, many districts availed themselves of these
funds to create pioneer magnet programs. For ex-
ample, in the mid-1980’s, McMillan Junior High
School, in Omaha, Nebraska, became Omaha Pub-
lic Schools’ first magnet junior high school, featur-
ing special courses in computers and mathematics.
Communication arts were added to the magnet cur-
riculum in the early 1990’s, and the name of the
school was changed to McMillan Magnet Center.
In the late 1960’s, George Richmond started the
MicroSociety program in Brooklyn, New York, with
fifth graders, for the purpose of providing them
with more educational motivation. This program
was tested in Lowell, Massachusetts, when its project
director developed a plan to begin two city-wide
magnet schools. One was a school of the arts and the
other would use the MicroSociety curriculum. Both
opened in 1980. It was hoped that students from all
over the city would choose these schools. Admissions
were on a first come, first served basis. When the
school was filled, waiting lists were developed, one
for minority and one for majority students, so the ra-
cial balance could be maintained. The schools rep-
resented the beginning of a voluntary desegregation
program in Lowell called “schools of choice.”
In the 1980’s, the number of individual schools
offering magnet programs nearly doubled, and the
number of students enrolled in these programs
nearly tripled. Some magnet programs were part of
an existing school. They were known as magnet
“school within a school” programs. Other magnet
schools operated on completely separate facilities
within a school district. Magnet schools remained
mainly an urban phenomenon, as more than half of
large, urban school districts would develop magnet
programs, as compared to only 10 percent of subur-
ban districts. By the end of the 1980’s, more than 1.2
million students were enrolled in magnet schools in
230 school districts.
Impact In the late 1980’s, the Supreme Court
adopted a fundamentally different approach to civil
rights than it had employed in previous decades. The
William H. Rehnquist court adopted the assumption
that the history of discrimination had been success-
fully addressed and that the Court’s previous orders
mandating school desegregation should therefore be
rescinded. In three decisions in the 1990’s, the Court
defined desegregation as a “temporary” remedy and
found that school boards released from their orders
could reinstate segregated schools.
The Rehnquist court felt that policies taking race
into account for the purpose of creating integration
were suspect. Such policies, to be considered legal,
had to both demonstrate a compelling motive and
prove that this goal could not be realized without
considering race. The Court’s decisions led some
lower courts to forbid even voluntary action for de-
segregation, such as magnet schools in which deseg-
regation guided their admissions policies. Such or-
ders were handed down, for example, in Virginia,
Maryland, and Boston.
Significant federal aid aimed at helping interra-
cial schools succeed ended early in the 1980’s. Many
states then abandoned the offices, agencies, and pol-
icies they had set up to produce and support inter-
racial education. This led to a significant decrease
in the creation of new magnet schools, although pre-
existing schools continued to flourish. Magnet
schools, however, proved the inspiration for charter
schools. Like magnets, charter schools offered alter-
natives to “traditional” public education and some-
times allowed students from a wider geographic area
to attend.
Further Reading
Brooks, Robert G., et al., eds.Definitive Studies of Mag-
net Schools: Voices of Public School Choice.Washing-The Eighties in America Magnet schools 611