Reply to Why don't out of boundary parents work on their own schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Often "your schools are great" because the parents have money. Money equals resources. Money equals time (to volunteer, to fundraise, to XYZ).  It's a tremendously complex issue and it can't be boiled down to the usual nonsense about hard workers versus free-riders.  Stop trying.[/quote]
So let me get this straight: You're saying that when people go to OOB schools, they're free-riding off the in-bounds parents who have enough money and time to have made their own schools great?  Are you sure you don't want to revise your statement?[/quote]
No. That is not what my statement says. Reread it.[/quote]
I'm trying, but I keep reaching the same conclusion.  You're saying the great schools are great because of money.  The in-bounds parents have money, which gives them the time and resources to make the school great.  I don't really disagree with that claim.  I also think "great" is often measured by student test scores, which are correlated with money too.  I also think it's easier for schools to be "great" when they avoid bad behavior and other family struggles, which are sadly often inversely correlated with money.  So, yeah, the wealthiest neighborhoods more easily breed strong public schools.  I get that.

But that doesn't mean schools which aren't in the wealthiest neighborhoods cannot be great too.  But as I read OP's post, she's pointing out that if the most stable families and the most capable students from up-and-coming neighborhoods abandon their local schools to attend the public schools from wealthy neighborhoods, then they're making it even harder for their own local schools to ever improve.  And to put it bluntly, they're free-riding off the money/resources/time of the wealthy neighborhood.

For the record, I don't live in a wealthy neighborhood, so this isn't about walling off my own schools from anyone else.  Indeed, my neighborhood is one where many families look for OOB options.  So I get that it's daunting to work on your in-bounds schools.  But I'm realistic enough to see that if all the most capable families are refusing to use the local school, the local school will get worse, not better.[/quote]

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