Shrinking Neighborhood School Enrollment

Sundays Chicago Tribune front page story pointed out what has been a troubling trend for some time. Neighborhood school enrollment is taking a real hit at the expense of a number of 'choice' schools...charters, magnet and selects. For the first time ever, a minority of Chicago students are attending schools assigned based on where they live.

It is fair to say that the concept of school choice is very much alive. There is an abundance of competition between neighborhood schools and other institutions. This competition doesn't simply extend to students but it involves dollars and the fight to survive as an entity.

Eve Ewing a sociologist at Harvard offered this sobering thought. "People who are choice advocates will say that this is a market demonstration. The question is what is the cost for the neighborhood in the long term and also what is the cost for the kids who are in the school, still? Ewing added, "The thing that's become clear is allowing schools to die through starvation or negligence over a long period of time is really one of the most malignant things you can do to a neighborhood."

In the coming days we'll look at some of Ewing's points.

Dick