This study is not Philadelphia specific and has nothing to do with academics. Still very interesting. I'll try to read the whole study when I'm home.

It just says what I've been saying for years:
you cannot run away to the burbs to get away from life. it will follow you out there too.
Stupid suburbans. Do you know how many people I know who have moved to Jersey or the burbs to "get away from the city b.s" and end up with pregnant teenagers, vandals, and all the stuff you would run into in the city. Makes me laugh.

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STARSKREAM

Thanks for the post greg...good stuff. WOW! That was really an eye-opener...there is such a perception of safety and the good life in the burbs that I never understood.

I think one of the big pushes is getting the BIG McMansions too, we are americans and too many of us think bigger IS better. With a rowhome you don't know what's on the inside, but with a brand spanking new McMansion it says"..hey I'm rich...look at my house", much easier than a pristine row (brownstone) in rittenhouse which could be 3x the cost of a McMansion.

Down with the McMansions!

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I'm going to home school and lock my kids in their rooms at night.

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Jason
Lynn Swann 06'

"Individualism is absent when other peoples' standards, not reality and reason, are ones primary guide."

"For the last several decades middle-class families have been fleeing from the cities to the suburbs, in part because many parents see the suburbs, and suburban public schools in particular, as refuges from the disorder and social collapse they see as endemic to America's urban school districts. Parents believe that suburban public schools provide children with safer, more orderly, and more wholesome environments than their urban counterparts."


This statement is pretty much true and the above mentioned study really does nothing to disprove it at all. Parents want to send their kids to schools with strong ACADEMIC records and which outright physical VIOLENCE is not a problem.

They are not sending their kids to suburban schools or moving out of cities and their horrible public school systems to avoid sex, drugs and rock and roll. Heck most of the parents of kids that are of high school age probably used illicit drugs and had pre marital sex.

Here is a perfect example. You have a child who is about to enter 9th grade and you live in South Philadelphia. You have a choice whether to send your son/daughter to South Philadelphia High School or sell your house and move into an apartment in Havertown and send your child to Haverford High School.

Let's compare average SATs and PSSA scores shall we:

South Phila - Average SAT (combined) 740
PSSA for 11th grade 1060 Reading, 1140 Math
Percent going to a 4 year college: 30%
Haverford High - Average SAT 1061
PSSA for 11th grade 1400 Reading, 1430 Math
Percent going to a 4 year college: 67%

On an interesting related note here are the reported instructional costs per student at Haverford and on average at Philadelphia School District. After looking at these numbers and the above numbers something tells me the money is not going to the Philly neighborhood HS but to the magnet schools like Masterman, Central, Carver and GAMP.

Haverford - $5,355
Philadelphia - $5,098
Only a $257 difference. It is important to note because at neighboring Radnor School District the instructional spending per student is $8,116 which may be part of the reason why the average SATs are 1170 and 90% attend a 4 year college...

I don't think they need metal detectors at Haverford and Radnor nor have I heard of students cursing out teachers in front of a whole class or raping students and then being allowed to stay in school without even a 1 day suspension, never mind an expulsion.

97.6% of college graduates live above the poverty line...

24.1% of householders who do not have a HS diploma live below the poverty line...
32.4% of Single parent female led Families live below the povert line
Number one reason cited for females dropping out of high school is pregnancy.

These stats are from a 1997 population profile of the United States done by the Census bureau. It can be found at http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/p23-194.pdf

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think middle class white flight destabilized and impoverished a lot of neighborhoods. De facto economic and racial segregation even more pronounced than if it was legally mandated has taken it's toll on schools.

Good question. Hard to answer with definitiveness. I think white flight happened which started problems at Philly schools and performances declined, but the nail in the coffin was the years of liberal minded "reforms" such as establishing magnet schools which "stole" the best talent out of every neighborhood and "mainstreaming" and "social promotion" which further prevented those with a desire to learn from doing so...


When talent leaves, yhou must cultivate new talent and plant seeds for growth. Philadelphia responded by hording talent, taking talent out of its home and isolating it to try to save a few while neglecting the majority.

many would cite that so-called white flight was caused by declining performance an d increasing violence at schools.

My feeling is that it's more the other way around. It's still going on as the city as a whole is losing more whites from the outer neighborhoods than it is gaining in Center City and environs. The minute non-whites get into an area it's almost as if here is a moratorium on buying by whites. I think as you said on a forum earlier that there is a perception that the minute a non white face shows up, crime goes up and property values go down. It's a racist perception and it causes a lot of damage. Once any meaningful investment in the area ceases it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I found an informative site on racial segregation and its causes and effects. Here is a link: http://www.umich.edu/%7Elawrace/index.htm