Getting parents riled up

If ever there was a hot-button issue in education, it would be school attendance zones.

Sure, you can make a case for high-stakes testing, teacher performance pay and a long list of others. But anyone who makes a career of covering school districts (as we do) will tell you, nothing gets parents more agitated and active than when some administrator tells them that sorry, your kid will have to move to a different school.

Look no farther than Pinellas schools, where the School Board has dealt lately with whether to close some schools to save money (parents protested) and whether to change its assignment policy to create more neighborhood schools (parents protested). Or consider Hillsborough County schools, where the superintendent's proposal about two years ago to shift kids among nearly 20 schools motivated giant neighborhoods to, yes, protest.

Most of the time, the parents end their complaining after the School Board gavels the matter closed. Better to move on and give their kids a sense that the move will be good for them than to keep the flames stoked with anger.

Then there's this group in Orange County. So peeved were they that their children were zoned out of Ocoee High that they've sued the school district, the Orlando Sentinel reports. They say the public wasn't involved in the decision.

Many districts aim to avoid this by including parents from the start. (See this Times story about how Pasco deals with the issue.) But ultimately, as the Miami Herald reports about a heated boundary fight in Broward, someone will end up unhappy. It just depends how unhappy as to what they'll do next, it appears.