4 ms·

Its not just housing prices, its also the school system, and the way children are placed in schools. From the article: -- Jean Covington, a San Francisco resid

by mesh 10y ago

Its not just housing prices, its also the school system, and the way children are placed in schools. From the article: -- Jean Covington, a San Francisco resident who works as a public defender in Contra Costa County, said she noticed a “pilgrimage” of her friends out of the city when children reached school age. When she decided to stick it out, she was confronted with what she described as a bewildering public school selection system governed by an algorithm that determines where children in the city are placed — sometimes miles from home. When her daughter turned 5, Ms. Covington applied to 14 public kindergartens, but her child ended up being placed in another. She chose a private school instead, along with the strain on the family budget that it entailed. -- In my personal case, we owned a house, but moved out of the city specifically because of the school system placement process.

wahern 10y ago
At our local elementary, Lafayette, over 70% of kids are neighborhood kids, despite it being one of the better schools in the city (there's a wait list). I'm not looking forward to the stress of the lottery system. But the nearest private school to us is St. Thomas Apostle, with a yearly tuition of only $8k ($6k for parishioners). Catholic schools are crazy cheap in the city.[1] [1] To people without kids: that may look expensive, but hour-for-hour it's a heck of alot cheaper than daycare. Daycare in SF and most major cities is roughly $100/day, and it ain't that much cheaper anywhere else except with less formal arrangements.
Spooky23 10y ago
That's a feature of urban life in general. Cities are forced into lottery systems to prevent segregation. So people with means self-segregate by moving away. In my case, (nowhere near SFO) my son was assigned to a school in the hood that is in the other side of my city. Just logistically it's a stupid policy -- during the afternoon it takes us almost 90 minutes to get there due to traffic. There's more craziness in these systems. More special needs kids end in urban districts, for example. In my region a school that recently completed an Olympic swimming pool outsourced several special needs programs to a pnother district 45 minutes away by bus. Parents who need those services migrate away.
- PeterisP 10y ago
  Cities aren't forced into lottery systems, they are perfectly free to allow kids to go to schools close to their home. Yes, that will result in segregation of students to generally match the segregation of residents. But artificial forced integration has it's downsides and costs, as this article shows - and IMHO it doesn't really solve anything, as the segregation of residents is not solved by randomly integrating students.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    Many cities were either directed to do so by the courts or DOJ, or threatened with legal action if they didn't.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    Many cities were either directed to do so by the courts or DOJ, or threatened with legal action if they didn't.
  - khuey 10y ago
    San Francisco's lottery system hasn't even succeeded at desegregating the schools.

by mesh 10y ago

wahern 10y ago

At our local elementary, Lafayette, over 70% of kids are neighborhood kids, despite it being one of the better schools in the city (there's a wait list). I'm not looking forward to the stress of the lottery system. But the nearest private school to us is St. Thomas Apostle, with a yearly tuition of only $8k ($6k for parishioners). Catholic schools are crazy cheap in the city.[1] [1] To people without kids: that may look expensive, but hour-for-hour it's a heck of alot cheaper than daycare. Daycare in SF and most major cities is roughly $100/day, and it ain't that much cheaper anywhere else except with less formal arrangements.

Spooky23 10y ago

That's a feature of urban life in general. Cities are forced into lottery systems to prevent segregation. So people with means self-segregate by moving away. In my case, (nowhere near SFO) my son was assigned to a school in the hood that is in the other side of my city. Just logistically it's a stupid policy -- during the afternoon it takes us almost 90 minutes to get there due to traffic. There's more craziness in these systems. More special needs kids end in urban districts, for example. In my region a school that recently completed an Olympic swimming pool outsourced several special needs programs to a pnother district 45 minutes away by bus. Parents who need those services migrate away.

PeterisP 10y ago
Cities aren't forced into lottery systems, they are perfectly free to allow kids to go to schools close to their home. Yes, that will result in segregation of students to generally match the segregation of residents. But artificial forced integration has it's downsides and costs, as this article shows - and IMHO it doesn't really solve anything, as the segregation of residents is not solved by randomly integrating students.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Many cities were either directed to do so by the courts or DOJ, or threatened with legal action if they didn't.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  Many cities were either directed to do so by the courts or DOJ, or threatened with legal action if they didn't.
- khuey 10y ago
  San Francisco's lottery system hasn't even succeeded at desegregating the schools.