At a community meeting put on by the Seattle School District about its new assignment plan this past weekend, one mother voiced the oft-heard lament of South End parents: Schools across the city aren’t equal. “There’s just flight, just massive flight in South Seattle,” she said during a part of the meeting, held at Mercer Middle School, when parents discussed the plan among themselves in small groups. The discrepancy is particularly true when it comes to high schools, she added, noting that some students take two-hour bus rides to get to a better school. And then she said that she wished she had the dilemma of North End parents, who might be forced by the plan to send their kids to, say, Nathan Hale High School rather than Roosevelt (both apparently good schools, in her estimation).That’s when other parents at her table bristled. “That’s very patronizing, I must say,” remarked a mother who had bought a house recently near Ballard High School, where she hoped to send her children, but now found herself within Ingraham High’s boundaries. The exchange illustrates the central problem with the assignment plan that attempts to bring back neighborhood schools by making assignments based on where students live: Families in all parts of the city–not just on the South End–feel that some schools are vastly inferior to others. So many worry about being stuck with one particular school, even if they agree with the concept of neighborhood schools in principal. The plan, which is scheduled for a School Board vote on November 18, allows students to try to get a place at a school other than their assigned one. But they can only get in if there is room once students in the neighborhood-based “attendance areas” have been assigned.It’s not just that some schools have better reputations, test scores and teachers than others. They actually offer different classes. A student who lives in one neighborhood, for instance, may be unable to take the same college-level Advanced Placement class as one in another neighborhood.Jennifer Broadstone, a West Seattle parent, notes that West Seattle High School (pictured above) has fewer advanced classes (either AP or International Baccalaureate) than any other high school in the district. It has six AP classes. Even much-maligned Cleveland and Rainier Beach high schools, both on the South End, have more, with eight and seven AP classes respectively. Standout Garfield High, in the Central District, has 15. (For a complete comparison of high-level classes, see page 25 of the district’s high school enrollment guide. West Seattle High’s listing undercounts AP classes by one. )As Broadstone notes, district staff have pledged to increase equity throughout the system by adding rigorous classes and other popular programs at schools perceived to be inferior. But, she observes, “this is where they get really wishy washy. They say it’s a work in progress. But for those kids going to high school next year, [those programs] need to be in place.”