We moved from the east coast to the Midwest when our daughter was two. We were warned not to buy in the city because the schools were a disaster. We bought in the city anyway and watched our neighbors and friends move out of the city when their kids reached kindergarten age. When our daughter was ready for school we decided that if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem. She and her younger brother went all the way through the city schools and graduated from them. No regrets.
But to determine if there are advanced courses, or if there are resources for extracurriculars, or if lab equipment is adequate, you have to do the research, and I don’t think most people do. When my parents decided to try to move school districts, they weren’t able to say for example, that the other school had more AP classes (it actually had less), or that there were more opportunities for music (there were actually less). My parents often talk to their friends who are deciding whether or not to more school districts, and they don’t go into specifics either. And it’s not obvious which schools provide more opportunities, or if the greater opportunities are worth the trouble of higher home prices. The linked video in the OP didn’t discuss things either. I’m sure however, that parents on CC do a much better job of researching high schools than the general public.
The top notch school districts of Plainsboro/Windsor in NJ are about 50% Asian in HS student body. Being an Asian parent myself, I’d avoid such districts. I simply don’t want to subject my kids to such a competitive environment.
@warbrain most people may not do it but it is easy to do. Our state has online “scorecards” that go very in depth, there are a bunch of third party web sites for school districts, realtors keep info on it in their offices.
Being here for 20+ years now I can say I know a lot about the neighboring districts vs this one. Who has pay to play fees, who can’t pass a levy and so must make cuts, what the graduation rates and average class sizes are and so on.
I have an Asian friend who sent her kids to private school because it was more diverse than the public schools.
Around here the worst and the best districts tend to be segregated one way or another, but the good enough districts are often quite diverse, though then the trick is to figure out if they continue to be diverse in high school or if tracking ends up making them highly segregated again.
I suggest you read the comments section to this article. They reveal a reasoning why whites leave high performing school districts 180 degrees different from that espoused by the author.
I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I never thought about schools when house shopping in 1989. I guess I just figured that most schools in the area (Madison and suburbs) were good. We ended up in one of those burbs, within walking distance of the grade school, middle school, and high school that our daughters later attended. The grade school was, at the time, one of the two (out of a total of six or seven) in the district with any ethnic, racial, and economic diversity. We loved it. My daughters got good educations at all their schools but the only one they liked was the grade school. As for the house, its value has gone up but probably not out of proportion to similar homes in Madison and other suburbs.
Very different in Los Angeles where parents who live in the best neighborhoods that have good/top public schools still tend to send their children to private school. I was able to send my two children to an excellent public elementary school but it was private school thereafter.
“Somehow white parents’ liberal politics and progressivism do not inform them that the decision to relocate to avoid Asians is racism. They’ve defined the term so narrowly, their own individual acts of prejudice don’t meet it.”
“Whitesplaining” much?
Consider table 6.1 on page 153 of https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/109013/ajardina_1.pdf?sequence=1 . 21.8% of white people surveyed in 2010 were very worried about the changing ethnic makeup of the US, and 42.1% were somewhat worried.
A different survey (mentioned next in that paper) in 2013 of political centrists (78% white) found substantial worry and lack of hope about increasing diversity.
In this context, “white flight” at the neighborhood level should not be seen as surprising – if a white person is afraid of becoming a member of a minority group nationwide (more of an abstract concept), it is likely that s/he is more afraid of such a thing happening in his/her local area where it is actually visible in his/her daily life.
@ubcalumnus - True. Even Asian kids hate it, but the pressure comes from the parents. See link:
https://justangelathings.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2017/01/05/i-have-a-problem-with-the-nations-1-high-school/