California needs to let students transfer to public schools that have openings

As many Southern California school districts lose students and face budget shortfalls, open enrollment is a practical solution that would help make public schools more attractive to families. Rather than assigning kids to schools based on their address, open enrollment allows students to transfer to any public school with available seats.

California’s current K-12 cross-district open enrollment laws, which are supposed to allow public school students to transfer to public schools outside their assigned school districts, are overly restrictive, complicated and in need of reform.

California’s current open enrollment laws earned a grade of D-, scoring 62 out of 100 possible points, from Reason Foundation’s latest ranking of every state’s open enrollment transfer laws. The state’s cross-dist