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Well you did ask about their demographic.
Education is a Liberal issue, they obsess with it. There aren't any upscale conservative gated communities known for their "best schools".
Yes there are. Orange county (CA) is full of such.
Well you did ask about their demographic.
Education is a Liberal issue, they obsess with it. There aren't any upscale conservative gated communities known for their "best schools".
Yes there are. Orange county (CA) is full of such.
Well, this was a throwaway comment by Trout, because it doesn't really jive with reality, but of course there are. In fact, most California liberals and other liberals actually don't want to live in "gated" communities. A great example is San Francisco, where it is not uncommon to have housing projects in your own neighborhood. They are even building one in Cow Hollow now (wow!). Many California liberals embrace diversity for the sake of diversity.
It is far more common for conservatives to live in gated communities that are largely white. Think Agrestic in Weeds.
Another example is Dallas -- some of the suburbs have gated communities. Yet another outside Little Rock, Arkansas, is Hot Springs Village.
Another one in California is Rolling Hills, CA -- it is a gated community that is an incorporated town and is highly conservative (and not just by LA standards -- it votes strongly Republican).
Orange County is an obvious one though. Land of Reagan.
NDrLoR
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2011 Oct 19, 2:18pm
Nobody seemed to make that big of a deal over it. It was just public school.
We even listened to a classmate read a Bible verse over the PA system in first period homeroom, followed by a Christian prayer led by our principal--nobody collapsed. At lunch, we bowed our heads for a few seconds before eating. One assignment in English class during Easter week was to write a prayer--it didn't have to be mentioned that it was a Christian prayer. Someone asked what a Jewish student should do and they were simply asked to write it from that point of view. One day in 1957 as I was running an erand for my teacher, two Mexican girls were talking in Spanish as they walked by our principal, Mr. Bracken. He listened to them for a moment, then said "There will be nothing but English spoken in these halls!" End of discussion. When I started college, I don't remember the concept of remediation existing, college just seemed to be a seamless continuation of where we left off in high school. Now, I think the figure is something like 40% of freshmen arriving on campus require remediation in English and math before they can assume their college level studies, so parents would do well to obsess considering the high cost of college today.
The other aspect to remember is that residency is not really dependent on having a house. All it takes is someone to rent an apartment within that town and they qualify.
This is also why some affordable housing programs can be controversial. In Mass we have some programs on affordable housing called 40b. there has to be a given percentage per town. Well take a gander at this
Here's a set of shops that is upper to high end
http://www.thederbystreetshoppes.com/
A development might make 180 sets of condos right by there
http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-03/yourtown/30239067_1_affordable-housing-traffic-concerns-town-officials
So that can easily mean more children which means higher classroom sizes which means they will eventually need more teachers, staff etc. Sometimes local governments have to prepare for these things. The same with a casino.
I think that a fair amount of education can be helped with some online learning. MIT courseware with khan academy makes a good combination.
zzyzzx
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2011 Oct 20, 2:38am
It's because parent's are way stupider than they used to be. Google something called "helicopter parents"
Huntington Moneyworth III, Esq
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2011 Oct 20, 4:32am
Public schools serve to teach the underclass rabble how to be obedient. I feel the factory floor of a smelting plant serves this purpose best but I see the side benefit of turning children into obese and pliant consumers of garbage. Like fat little anchors, they keep the pissant parents in line and at their proper station in life serving men of stature and merit like me.
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I'm not sure if its because I wasn't paying as much attention when I was younger, or that schools were more consistent in quality or if it was the region I grew up in ( NC) where schools were generally decent, but after having lived on both coasts in major metro areas one thing seems very apparent and that would be that parents seem to obsess over schools.
Back in the day it seemed like parents in my neck of the woods sent us off to whatever school happened to be around. They just stuck all of us runts on a bus and off we went. Nobody seemed to make that big of a deal over it. It was just public school. "Somehow" most everyone I went to school with all made it out just fine and have gone on to mostly successful lives. I'm sure the school I went to was ok but probably not remarkable. It certainly wasn't the best. It was adequate.
Parents here seem to make schools into this crazy thing that has to be discussed, fretted over, measured, and graded all the time. People place their home purchases on whatever school happens to be nearby. They will pay sometimes 50% or more for the privilege of living near the "Best" schools. On and on and on.
Now granted I don't have nor plan on having kids. So I really don't have any sort of desire to care about schools. But I swear people here seem to be way over-obsessed with this subject. Anyone else concur? Just curious.