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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One thing seems a trend to me (as an upper middle income non-white person), it's liberal guilt whites who seem to see 'value' in sending their kids to majority or near- majority low income schools. I think you'd be hard pressed to find upper middle income minority families attempting the same thing. I think the only thing such an attempt would do to my little brown kid is reinforce the already pervasive notion that brown means to be poor and uneducated[b]. I think it is important to empathize and try to alleviate poverty,speaking as someone with ample prior exposure to poverty both personally and professionally. [b]What I don't understand is the desire of certain rich white folk to emulate it in their children's educations.[/b] [/quote]

I have no idea what you mean by this.  I'm white, my DH is Hispanic (but of the "Spanish" class as my MIL emphatically states).  Our kids are a little darker than me but much more fair than my DH.  Our kids go to school at the same elementary school my DH went only now it is a majority minority school.  The majority are Central American, whites/blacks are similar percentages and Asians are a clear minority.  It's now a Title 1 school.

We are far more affluent than most students but had no agenda in sending our kids to that school.  We bought our home before were married and well before we even thought of having kids.  It's our neighborhood school.  I know that not every parent at that school are as invested in their child's education as we are but I don't believe that has any impact on our kids (the oldest is in 6th grade, the youngest is in 2nd). The biggest influence on our kids' education is my DH and me.  
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I'm glad you respond to the PP you referenced.  I'm white.  I don't have any "guilt," nor am I naive about issues some schools face.  I don't have children yet, but when I do, I most certainly will try my neighborhood schools first.  Why?  Because I believe in neighborhood schools.  My local schools are pretty balanced, though, along class and race lines (as in they are truly diverse -- it isn't all poor students or all rich students or all students of one particular race).  If I have problems with the neighborhood/public school (either social or academic), then I will consider private.  But I find it shameful that people of all races don't even give their neighborhood schools a chance, mostly based on presumption/reputation, as opposed to actually talking to people who have kids attending that school.

Growing up, I went to public school and got a decent education (went on to win a full academic scholarship in the amount of $120,000).  In college, my experience was that a lot of the students who had gone to private school had serious attitude issues.  They had a sense of superiority and entitlement that I wouldn't want any child of mine to have.  And frankly, they weren't any more advanced academically than I was.  So I will resist as much as I can sending my child to private school.  Because so many of those kids come out with some serious character flaws.

That said, certainly, if there are problems in public school that I am not able to ameliorate, then, sure, I will consider private school.

But I don't think anyone should assume that "white folk" send their kids to public school out of any kind of "liberal guilt" or naive ideology.  I've seen the products of private school.  And I wasn't much impressed.[/quote]

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