Magnet schools should be allowed to expand and multiply, but more state funding or local revenue efforts like a parcel tax, will be needed to allow that to happen, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy told some 300 parents Monday at a meeting at North Hollywood High School.

Local magnet school parents from more than 45 campuses in the district organized the meeting in an effort to gauge the new schools chief's commitment to the special program that serves some 16,000 students a year.

The theme-based schools, which were launched as a way to integrate students in the late 1970s, have become the "jewels" of LAUSD, often boasting better test scores and graduation rates than traditional