People who distort data by calling it mudslinging need to look objectively at what San Jose Unified School District has done to neighborhood schools, all in the name of preserving magnet schools, which are not functioning as magnets. The very nature of magnet schools is divisive, creating the haves and have-nots. Amy Huddlestun, a Hacienda parent, needs to be aware that Hacienda's success is at the expense of neighborhood schools like Willow Glen and Schallenberger elementary.

San Jose Unified created Hacienda Science Magnet more than 20 years ago. The purpose of Hacienda Science Magnet was to attract economically disadvantaged (ED)students primarily from downtown schools. The Federal Court Order stipulated that magnets were to have a desegregative factor— integrate our schools and close the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. To date, Hacienda has not performed that mission. Hacienda over the years attracted a majority of their students from neighborhood schools in the center of the district. This was never the intended purpose of magnets. Over the years, Hacienda has received millions of desegregation dollars that went mainly to advantaged students, not disadvantaged students.

Hacienda has approximately 9 percent economically disadvantaged (ED) students. Willow Glen Elementary has 46 percent and Schallenberger 40 percent. A large percentage of these ED students who attend Willow Glen and Schallenberger elementary are bused in from outside the neighborhood. The district's ED average is 45 percent. Hacienda should mirror the district average. That is the mission of a magnet school/program to reflect the district's average.

Willow Glen and Schallenberger have bilingual programs for English Language Learners (ELL). Hacienda has no bilingual program. Over the years Willow Glen and Schallenberger have accepted more than their fair share of ELL and ED students—not Hacienda.

Parents like Huddlestun are happy to choose Hacienda and leave their neighborhood school. They don't have to worry about ED or ELL students, leave that to Willow Glen and Schallenberger. That is the nature of divisiveness.

Carol Myers

Kiner Avenue

Correction

The letter published in the Nov. 24 issue of the Willow Glen Resident should have shown the following numbers under Econ. Disadvantaged category, SJUSD 45 percent and Hacienda 9 percent.