Finding a Solution

As one of the main issues in this fall's School Committee race, these empty seats are getting a lot of attention from candidates.

Rather than definitively rejecting students for racial reasons, Nancy Walser suggests that schools set a period of time after which, if quotas are still not met, schools may fill their empty slots with students from the waiting list, without regard to their race.

"We have to preserve diversity, but we have to find a way to do that that doesn't chase people from our schools artificially because they're not the right race," Walser says.

For Jacqueline Miller, the key to satisfying parents and fixing the choice system lies merely in listening to parents--and she says evidence of what they want already exists.

"If you look at the distribution [among Cambridge's public elementaries], there are lots of schools that are highly subscribed to," she says. "It seems to me they ought to look at that and say, 'Should we make more schools like that?' "

Such an initiative could also help deflect dissatisfaction with the choice system by making all schools appealing.

"One thing we have to move away from in Cambridge is the sense that there are better schools and worse schools, that it's a lottery you either win or you lose," says Alice Turkel.