9 ms·

I disagree that it's segregating or done on purpose, but it is deeply unfair that the price of a good "public" education is being able to afford the real estate

I disagree that it's segregating or done on purpose, but it is deeply unfair that the price of a good "public" education is being able to afford the real estate in that catchment area / school district.

toasterlovin 8y ago
But it's ultimately the high price of the real estate in that area that makes the schools good. We live in an economy where intelligent academic achievers do pretty well. So expensive areas are highly skewed toward intelligent academic achievers. Guess what kind of children they have...
- mark212 8y ago
  I remain skeptical of that part. There are, however, plenty of cities in the US where the school district boundaries are drawn very precisely to enable the imposition of property taxes that support the schools. It becomes a sort of private-public school, in the sense that all the homeowners in the district pay extra and those schools have sports teams and labs and orchestra and field trips that the kids on the other side of the line can only dream of. (This is impossible in California, however, because the property taxes are set at the county level and school districts have no control over their own funding.)
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can tell you that the best schools there are also in the wealthy neighborhoods, despite the funding issue you mention not applying in California. And that's because the children of wealthy people have the genetics and culture to do well in school.
  - anonymouskimmer 8y ago
    "This is impossible in California, however" Oh no it's not. Plenty of rich neighborhoods in California have, or have tried, to split out their own district from the larger, more heterogenous district.
anonymouskimmer 8y ago
> I disagree that it's segregating or done on purpose Here's a random article which shows that often it's done on purpose: http://hechingerreport.org/wealthy-towns-able-secede-higher-poverty-higher-minority-school-districts/ http://hechingerreport.org/wealthy-towns-able-secede-higher-...

toasterlovin 8y ago

But it's ultimately the high price of the real estate in that area that makes the schools good. We live in an economy where intelligent academic achievers do pretty well. So expensive areas are highly skewed toward intelligent academic achievers. Guess what kind of children they have...

mark212 8y ago
I remain skeptical of that part. There are, however, plenty of cities in the US where the school district boundaries are drawn very precisely to enable the imposition of property taxes that support the schools. It becomes a sort of private-public school, in the sense that all the homeowners in the district pay extra and those schools have sports teams and labs and orchestra and field trips that the kids on the other side of the line can only dream of. (This is impossible in California, however, because the property taxes are set at the county level and school districts have no control over their own funding.)
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  Having grown up in Los Angeles, I can tell you that the best schools there are also in the wealthy neighborhoods, despite the funding issue you mention not applying in California. And that's because the children of wealthy people have the genetics and culture to do well in school.
- anonymouskimmer 8y ago
  "This is impossible in California, however" Oh no it's not. Plenty of rich neighborhoods in California have, or have tried, to split out their own district from the larger, more heterogenous district.

anonymouskimmer 8y ago

> I disagree that it's segregating or done on purpose Here's a random article which shows that often it's done on purpose: http://hechingerreport.org/wealthy-towns-able-secede-higher-poverty-higher-minority-school-districts/ http://hechingerreport.org/wealthy-towns-able-secede-higher-...