Beverly Hills School District Votes on Controversial Proposal

Tensions were running high in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night as the Beverly Hills Unified School District approved a controversial proposal to end special permits for over 400 students who do not live within the Beverly Hills School District.

After a four hour heated debate on Tuesday that ended close to midnight, the board unanimously voted to notify “permit students” in kindergarten through 8th grade that they would not be allowed to renew their permits and must establish residency within the district boundaries if they wish to take advantage of the school system. High school students have been exempt from this and are allowed to remain in the district until they graduate.

The district was receiving $6,239 from the state for each out-of-district student it enrolled. With a funding shift in place, the board will now rely on self-financing by utilizing its own property tax revenue.

Several residents and students had a chance to voice their opinions during the debate. Former Mayor Robert K. Tanenbaum presented the board with a petition signed by 2,600 residents to allow permit students to stay on. “We made a commitment to these children when we needed the dollars. The children are not expandable. They are not financial assets,” he said.

Beverly Hills Board Vice President Lisa Korbatov believes that the vote is protecting the residents of the city by utilizing money to fund their schools instead of paying for outsiders. “People make sacrifices to move in here,” she said. “We’re saying to permit students, ‘Please move in; be our neighbors.”

Most permit students in the district come from L.A’s well-to-do neighborhoods that surround Beverly Hills and will now have to either attend a private school or a public school in the Los Angeles Unified School District where their parents pay taxes.

Some are willing to make the sacrifice. According to the Associated Press, at least one family is thinking about moving to Beverly Hills to be able to continue their education in the school system. One student tells AP, “My Dad’s starting to pack up boxes around the house.”

Those whose permits are not renewed are able to appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the final authority on inter-district transfers.

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