Photo by: Jim Henderson

Queens Metropolitan High School, one of four large zoned high schools that the DOE plans to shrink while creating new schools in the building.

Zoned schools are designed to serve local students. But the Bloomberg administration now plans to limit enrollment at four large zoned city high schools—ending the long-standing guarantee of seats for all who seek to attend.

“Across the city, we want to create new high-performing options in areas where we see low enrollment. The enrollment change affects just a handful of schools and a small number of students,” said Department of Education spokesperson Devon Puglia. “Families should be able to choose the school that’s right for them. That’s just what we’re offering.”

The changes will affect what DOE characterizes as a “tiny fraction” of students—roughly, about a thousand high-schoolers.

School Choice: Who Chooses?

A generation before mayoral control, the Board of Education divided the city into 32 school districts, each of which served a particular community.