Reply to The Hidden Burden on Middle-Class Families in Public Schools

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[quote=Anonymous]Do UMC and MC families sometimes feel pressure to stay in public? Yes. Where does that pressure come from? Not from poor families. Not from politicians or administrators.

It comes from other UMC and MC families. Why? Because they want to keep socioeconomic peers in the public system. If all the UMC and half the MC families ditch for private, the remaining families DO carry a major burden in the public system. Poor families generally don't have the resources to be very involved. So it will fall on the few MC or UMC families at the school. Whereas if there are lots of MC and UMC families, school engagement and involvement is more spread out and doesn't feel so thankless and miserable.

So the pressure to stay in public is not, in itself, a burden. Stay or go. But for the families that stay, they will carry a heavier burden thanks to those that go. Should you feel guilty about that? I think guilty is a fairly useless emotion. But I don't blame the families left behind for their frustration. The truth is that the public system works best when the participation rates are high. It's a collective action issue. But if you've ever been in a district where all the MC and UMC families go to public school, you've seen it -- these tend to be successful, sought after districts. But it doesn't work when it's just a handful of families. You need critical mass.[/quote]

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