A Good Line | Feb 12th at 4:12pm
I just want to paraphrase Warren Simmons here:
Neighborhood schools are valuable in neighborhoods with valuable assets.
School quality and neighborhood quality are tightly linked, and households generally buy themselves into the best neighborhood they can afford, then turn around and try to prevent anyone poorer than they from moving in after them. So long as one buys one’s way into good schools by buying one’s way into good neighborhoods, it will be very difficult to address the problems at the heart of our public school systems.
Ryan Avent is an economics writer living in Washington, DC. He authors The Economist's economics blog, Free Exchange, and covers environmental and urban policy issues for Grist.
Doug Pascover in Altadena, CA on Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 4:40pm
Is there something to back up the statement that households generally try to prevent anyone poorer than them from moving in? My cynical soul would like to believe this has been proven