This is a long standing and very intense debate in SF. You can reasonably criticize the "lottery" system, and you can reasonably defend the "school choice" system.
Kind of funny that Reason magazine, not normally a big cheerleader for SF politics, kind of likes the approach.
Anyway, I think it's perfectly reasonable to defend or criticize the assignment process, I just don't think you can accurately claim that SF public schools are horrible.
Many elementary schools are very good to decent. I don't recall any public high schools being very good, except for Lowell, and that's a charter school. SOTA is also decent as well, but again, I believe it's a charter school. I think the claim that SF high schools are on the whole horrible is accurate.
Kind of funny that Reason magazine, not normally a big cheerleader for SF politics, kind of likes the approach.
http://reason.com/archives/2006/04/01/the-agony-of-american-...
Anyway, I think it's perfectly reasonable to defend or criticize the assignment process, I just don't think you can accurately claim that SF public schools are horrible.