More affluent neighborhoods are creating their own school districts

[babylonsister]

More affluent neighborhoods are creating their own school districts
The legally sanctioned fencing-out of low-income students of color.
By Alvin Chang@[e-mail] Apr 17, 2019, 11:50am EDT


In the past two decades, 128 communities have had a simple idea: to make their own school district.

For many of them, the underlying purpose was to draw a legal fence between their community and a poorer one. Because a large chunk of public education is funded using local property taxes, making your own district with your affluent neighbors means that you’re able to hoard resources — and not share tax dollars with poorer communities of color.

In 2017, I wrote about how a surprising number of these efforts have succeeded.

Since then, 11 more communities have seceded from their districts, according to a report from EdBuild. Another 16 communities are currently in the process of trying to secede. And two states — Indiana and North Carolina — have made it easier for these communities to form their own districts.

“It’s a disturbing trend. We’re seeing legislators making this overtly permissible,” said EdBuild CEO Rebecca Sibilia.

more...

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/17/18307958/school-district-secession-worsening-data

[guillaumeb]

1. It started in the 1960s.

A legal way to avoid integration.

[MissB]

2. Our district was formed in the late 1800s

Which is probably around the time the first few homes were built. It’s still a separate school district from the nearby large city district. The boundaries for the district are the boundaries for the neighborhood.

It’s really no different than the ones in the Vox article- it’s just that this one was formed a long time ago. Functionally it’s the same.

However, our particular state has a school funding equalization law. Our local property taxes are spread out to other districts around the state and that’s a good thing. That being said, our district is perfectly capable of raising the funds through a private foundation. Parents donate, plus they pay their fair share of taxes for education that end up elsewhere in the state. The education is still quite uneven from district to district.

[sarabelle]

3. Isn't cheating to get their kids in college enough for them?

[Karadeniz]

4. Undemocratic. Unchristian.

[unc70]

5. No idea what they mean about NC

Must have missed whatever action they are talking about at the state level. There have been groups that have wanted to split the districts in the two largest counties around Raleigh and Charlotte. NC strongly encouraged counties with multiple districts to merge their city and county schools into a single system. Only a couple have not.

The bigger problem in NC is from mostly white Christian academies and from charter schools bleeding off public funding.

BTW NC schools are mostly funded by the State.

[Blue_true]

7. Schools in Florida are funded by the state.

In my red county, kids from the richest neighborhoods either go to private schools or to the nearest public schools with kids of all races and religions. There really are only a small handful of the "Christian" academies of civil rights resistance left and they are really small. Redlining by race is no longer an issue here, neighborhoods are populated based upon income and are pretty well integrated, except for the really rich ones, but the rich kids largely go to public schools.

[malaise]

6. Institutional Racism

on steroids

[Horse with no Name]

8. Texas is famous for this. Highland Park for example

Also in Tyler.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texasobserver.org/school-desegregation-pi/amp/

[FakeNoose]

9. Next step is when the wealthy refuse to pay property taxes

Why should they pay for schools for other people's kids?