Urban trend: a movement towards local public elementary schools

These two Oakland Tribune articles, Struggling to find the 'right' school and Area Schools see demographic shift, by Katy Murphy highlight a growing trend: parents who might otherwise send their children to private school are choosing to send their kids to local public elementary schools and, hence, reinvesting in their community.

This basic choice is actually deeply political and a major, if somewhat hidden, topic in big cities all over the nation. Here in Oakland, where the Oakland Unified School District has never really recovered from this blow in 2002, this kind of re-engagement with public institutions is a critical component in making progressive change in America's cities.

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KC said…
Glad to see you making this point. I've been involved with moderating forums and editing a blog devoted to San Francisco schooling for 7+ years now. The assautl on public schools by the public school abolitionists, privitizers, voucher proponents and charter school boosters has been a recurring theme. The press loves to bash public schools and heap praise on reforms like charters. Few take the time to connect the dots and see the underlying political agenda. Public schools are no where's near as bad as the press would have us believe, and it is a political statement to buck that CW and choose to make the commitment to public schools.

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