<p>Well, the problem is that when you live in a major city that has a large population with income, housing, job, etc issues, the public schools are going to have a representative portion of kids whose families have these problems. They are out of proportion to what is seen in upscale suburbs. My brother lives in a nice area of Manhattan but the two public schools, one a high school, the other an elementary school are terrible. He doesn’t know anyone that sends their kids to either school. Both schools are comprised of black and Hispanic kids from what I can see during dismissal. The neighborhood is not one with a lot of residents of that ethnicity; those who live there with school aged kids send them to private schools if they don’t get into a magnet program out of the neighborhood. Apparently some effort was made some years ago to integrate those schools, and the percentages went too far for the liking of those who had other alternatives. So the neighborhood school does not serve that neighborhood any more. </p>
<p>I don’t know what a workable solution is when I see these situations. Clearly, efforts to change the make up of these schools did not work.</p>