Reply to Do people lie about FARMS?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Do people lie about FARMS?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One thing that puzzles me is the huge discrepancy between FARM rates for certain schools and the poverty rate and median income figures from the census.   Whenever I have looked at schools in the area, there seems to be huge differences.  Take Lee HS and the Springfield CDP (which basically covers only central Springfield, not west Springfield).  As I recall, the FARMs rate at Lee HS is around 50%, but the census numbers for he Springfield CDP say the poverty rate is something like 7% with a median household income around $90k.  What accounts for such a significant difference? [/quote]

In the Lee HS area specifically (although I dont know exactly the boundary lines so I apologize if my assumptions are bordering into Edison/W Springfield/Hayfield territory), I would guess that the discrepancy is because of several factors that result the phenomenon of a higher income for families w/o school aged kids + lower income for those w/school aged kids:

First, because it is an older neighborhood there are many families whose children have grown up--they have lived there forever.  So these families likely have a higher income simply due to age.  I'm in my late 30s and when I was in school, Lee didnt suck as bad as it did now.  Plenty of people I know's parents still live where they always have--schools dont matter anymore so they have no reason to move. So you get high income from this group but no FARMS because no school aged kids.

Second, there a lot of townhomes/condos that are likely inhabited by single people/couples w/no kids/families w/kids who arent in school yet... Granted there are a lot of older garden style apartments that are going to feed into the high FARMS rate and increase the poverty level.  But I'm talking about the newer condos/apartments.  A high income for these families seems believable.

So, while the single family houses zoned for Lee are pretty...modest...leading to the FARMs rate being 50%, there are plenty of households w/non-school-aged children who are doing just fine.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics