One of the biggest myths which hurts cities: That schools matter much

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by eschaton

This is a bit of an aside to my OP, but way, way too much U.S. housing policy is concerned with keeping seniors in their homes, even though it's a net negative effect for everyone.

1. Seniors aging in place are often in houses which don't work for an aging person (presence of stairs, for example.

2. Seniors basically destroy the value of single-family homes due to deferred maintenance. I've seen so many homes which were close to ruined even in desirable areas because of something like an old person who either couldn't afford to fix a leaking roof or didn't think it was a big deal.

3. In high-cost areas, it's a really sub-optimal outcome to have 1-2 elderly people in 3+ bedroom homes. They sop up family-sized homes, but don't have families. They live in prime areas close to places of work, but don't work.

I do recognize that there's reasons to keep elderly people in place - like a move makes the onset of dementia more likely - but I still feel like on balance we shouldn't incentivize the elderly to age in place, at least not in higher-cost areas.

OK, already! I feel like you are describing me. If I can outlive my three large senior dogs, I promise to sell out and move into assisted living ASAP.

[Don't Be That Guy]

Originally Posted by eschaton

That isn't an "F" school though, it's a "C- school." Though it seems really, really hard to score worse than a C- on Niche (there are no schools in my district that score worse than that, for example).

My argument however was not that parents should feel comfortable sending their kids to the worst of the worst schools in their district. While I don't think that has serious impacts academically (I know people who did this with their kids, and they're fine) I would worry about the social impact on my kids if they went to a 95% black school where essentially all of the student body was low income, for example (their magnet schools have all been majority black, but more balanced than this). There's also serious concerns about safety, lack of school resources, non-existent PTAs, etc.

FWIW, the neighborhood K-8 I am zoned for is ranked B-. As I said, I find it totally acceptable, but at the time my daughter started kindergarten we lived in another neighborhood which had a worse neighborhood school (rated C). The neighborhood high school is ranked C-.

My son's elementary school, and my daughter's middle/high school, are both rated B...which considering the diversity in SES, really undersells both schools. I've looked into the standardized testing when disaggregated by race, and the white kids score as well as the top suburban schools, and the black kids score much better than at the neighborhood schools (though not quite good enough to close the achievement gap)

One weird thing I've noticed as I've gotten older though is how segregated kid social groups are. My daughter had close black friends in elementary school, but drifted away from them as she got older - all of her friends are white/Asian now (which is saying something since the school is around 2/3rds black). My son's school is closer to 50/50, and he's literally never had a black friend - which seems odd because I know he's still young enough he doesn't really understand race (like, one of his good friends has an adopted younger brother who is black, and he swears that the two look alike).

I'm assuming that you've looked at the A+ Schools 2022 Community Report?

Pittsburgh Montessori magnet is the best-performing elementary school in the city and has the lowest percentage of low-income students by a huge margin. Conversely, Futon Academy is 70% low-income but has the best outcomes for black and low-income students. The other elementary schools aren't even close to those two. So, schools do matter.