Reply to Latin v. BASIS

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Latin v. BASIS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] So what is the problem?  Rich people on Cpaitol Hill should stop attending their neighborhood school because that is taking up the spots of kids OOB?  Only in DC are people criticized for attending their neighborhood school![/quote]

You put the finger on what's amiss, namely that we're trying to stem the downsides of gentrification (homogenizing areas upward or downward by income) by school choice, where a more effective solution to the problem would be to make sure people from all walks of of life can locate where they want to. That's no longer the case in most of Capitol Hill, and many other areas in DC. That's where economic and housing policy in DC drives a wedge into education policy. [/quote]

I'm not sure I follow. It's income inequality that drives the fact that a HHI of $100K can't buy on Capitol Hill or NW or other areas. In any case, are you suggesting that reducing income inequality would be the best route?  And are you also suggesting that the only available policy, since income inequality seems unsolvable, and even if it's the second-best policy, is school choice?[/quote]

Actually, housing is what I had in mind. I sort of had to see it first-hand to truly understand how gentrification (without a doubt beneficial over all) can rear its ugly head. In all three cases I followed more or less closely, a family lived in rental housing within the school boundaries (working poor in two cases, welfare in another), with kids that do/did quite well in the neighborhood school. Each of them was forced out for very different reasons, one because the landlord sold, one due to divorce, and other due to a transfer in custody. But all three were completely unable to relocate within even a generously defined vicinity of the school, in two cases literally being forced to move to another end of town. Even for middle income families (e.g. one parent staying home) it would be something of a juggle to rent or buy where we live, certainly not without compromising saving for college or retirement. One conceivable way of moving (back) into the neighborhood would be inheritance. But that quickly becomes a no go if several siblings claim a piece of a property and one has to pay off the other. I'm no housing expert, but countless other cities on this fine planet have rent control and other housing policies that counter-act trends we just take for granted around here.[/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