The (magnet) elementary school I attended used a lottery to select among the top X% of applicants. It did not "tarnish the pedigree of the school" or anything like that.
There is already a lottery to select which students among the thousands who apply will be offered admission. It's just not uniformly random.
There is already a lottery to select which students among the thousands who apply will be offered admission. It's just not uniformly random.