Posted on 02/20/2002 12:01:13 PM PST by Salvation
Portland Tribune: Census shows that rich kids are leaving public schools behind
Todd Murphy of The Portland Tribune
Portland, OR, Feb. 19 - Families in Portland's higher-income neighborhoods are increasingly abandoning Portland Public Schools.
The evidence comes - for the first time in a concrete way - in a recent analysis of 2000 census data. It hints at the beginning of a trend that city leaders have dreaded for years: that middle- and upper-class families will flee the city's historically strong school district, causing the debilitating decline that has occurred within inner cities and city school systems across the country during the last three decades.
The census analysis, prepared as part of a report by Portland State University's Population Research Center, compares the percentage of school-age children enrolled in Portland Public Schools in 1990 to the percentage enrolled in 2000. That percentage declined across the district, from 85.8 percent in 1990 to 83.5 percent in 2000 - a percentage still higher than in many U.S. cities.
But the portion of school-age children enrolled in the Portland district declined more steeply from 1990 to 2000 on Portland's west side and in a large area of Northeast Portland around Grant High School - some of the most affluent areas of the city.
The percentage of school-age children enrolled in city schools in Southwest Portland dropped almost 10 points, to about 73 percent, from 1990 to 2000. The percentage declined 8.6 percent, to 71.1 percent, in west and northwest portions of the city. And the enrollment decline was 6.2 percent, to 83.8 percent, in city schools around Grant High.
The west-side decline happened even as the total population of school-age children increased significantly in the area during the decade, according to the PSU analysis.
"I guess what's most concerning about those kinds of rates: Are we just becoming like every other kind of urban center, where people with more resources don't care (about the public schools)?" Portland school board Chairwoman Debbie Menashe asked.
"Portland isn't that way yet,'' she said, but the numbers concern her. "I find it very sad."
A serious threat While district leaders are concerned about declining enrollment across the 54,000-student district - down from more than 80,000 in the early 1960s - the import of losing middle- and upper-class families is about more than their numbers.
Middle-class and upper-middle-class parents generally have more time to provide volunteer help in schools. They have more political clout to make sure that schools get government support.
By keeping their children in public schools, they generally make schools better - making city neighborhoods more attractive to live in. And pulling their children out of public schools has precipitated declines that have decimated inner cities and city school systems from Detroit to Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.
"Look at what's happened in other cities, and pick almost any other urban environment," said Karla Wenzel, school board vice chairwoman.
"You lose the investment of the middle classes in caring about the school system and caring about schools and how they affect the livability of the city, and you have people who might shrug their shoulders and say, 'Public schools are only for people who can't afford other choices,' '' she said.
The apparent shift toward schools outside the Portland district is obvious in enrollment numbers.
Enrollment in the two largest suburban districts west of Portland - Beaverton and Hillsboro - has increased by more than 14,000 since 1990, or more than 37 percent.
Enrollment at Washington County private schools has jumped from 4,900 in 1990 to more than 7,600 this year, according to state and other figures. Enrollment in Multnomah County private schools has increased from about 8,900 in 1990 to about 9,900 this year.
The children of Mike and Nancy Phillips are among those statistics.
The couple, both physicians, live with their two sons in Portland's West Hills. Sixth-grader Spencer and second-grader Grant both have attended the city district's Ainsworth Elementary, which Nancy Phillips calls "a great school." But both are now attending private schools.
Spencer attends Gilkey Middle School because the Phillipses were concerned about the large size of the Portland district's West Sylvan Middle School. Grant attends Catlin Gabel School because they worried about the large class sizes at Ainsworth.
"I never thought in a million years that I would be doing this," Nancy Phillips said.
But the continued budget cuts to public schools and the erosion of programs "make me nervous" about Portland district schools, Phillips said. "I'm pulling my kids out of them because I'm not sure about the future. And it's sad."
District leaders say the trend can be stopped if state lawmakers better invest in schools, and if the district continues to develop its special programs and schools that can compete with private schools for middle-class and upper-class children.
But addressing the issue soon is urgent, Wenzel said. "What it says to me," she said of the PSU analysis, "is that the writing is on the wall. And what are we going to do about it?"
Fewer children born In recent years, district leaders have pointed at two other trends as major contributors to the enrollment decline: Couples are having fewer children, and skyrocketing Portland house prices are forcing families to buy homes in the suburbs.
The PSU report confirms the effect that the city's housing can have on school enrollment. It points out, for example, that while the city added more than 14,000 housing units during the 1990s, many of them were multifamily units - which house fewer school-age children per unit than single-family homes do.
This means that the number of kids per household is significantly lower in Portland than in the suburbs - and even lower in the city in 2000 than it was in 1990.
But the most striking part of the PSU analysis was the movement in percentage of Portland children attending Portland Public Schools - movement that had not been formally tracked before.
In the north, inner southeast and outer northeast areas of the city, the percentage of school-age children enrolled in district schools changed little from 1990 to 2000. In the outer southeast, an area that gained scores of immigrant families during the 1990s, the percentage of school-age children attending district schools actually increased from 84 percent to 90 percent.
Makes me wonder if this is happening all over. My intuition says 'yes'.
My guess is that as Portland Oregon becomes more and more socialist, that any parent that gives a damn about their kids and has the resources will get their kids out of the public school system.
But that would be putting blame on someone besides the parents.
What socialist in their right mind would ever blame a public institution?
Those "rich" parents are to blame for the decline in the public schools. Not the school board. Not the school administrators. Not the teachers. Not the curriculum.
Not the federal and state money.
No Debbie, we are people who care more about our children than your beloved blob.
If my kids were in school now I would be demonstrating in front of the SCOTUS to get this OK'd!
However, I get so angry when I hear the educrats and those who are on their side always refer to vouchers as taxpayer funded tuition. Well, what about the public school system--that is taxpayer funded. I really have a hard time with this as I strongly feel that anyone who does not use the govt. school system should not be forced to pay property taxes to the schools unless they want to.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
"... Grant attends Catlin Gabel School..."
When my daughter and I were looking for a private school for my oldest grandson, we visited Catlin Gabel. While I'm sure they offer a wonderful education, they are very liberal. The "nail in the coffin" for us was that they have a Gay and Lesbian club for the middle school and high school students.
I think they got the cause/effect relationship wrong here. Do you think the neighborhood schools go bad because they leave, or do you think they leave because the neighborhood schools go bad?
Good question!
One of the reasons I'm convinced we will win on school choice sooner or later is the wealth effect. Wealthy parents, including the limousine liberals, have always chosen private schools even when academics were not an issue; it was a matter of social status. Middle class people tend to emulate the elites, and increasing incomes are steadily lowering the opportunity costs for middle class families to do so with regard to a big ticket item like education. I suspect private schooling would continue to grow, though not as rapidly, even if the public schools had a miracle cure. When the obituary of the government schooling monopoly is written, the Ted Kennedy-Al Gore-and Bill&Hillary types should get a prominent mention for leading by example.
That said, I'm curious about Portland because my very liberal brother lives there and, though he has no kids himself, is a great booster of Portland public schools. He is also anti-voucher, mainly because he idenfifies vouchers with the dreaded religious right. We get into a fairly heated exchange whenever the subject comes up, so I'd appreciate any solid data.
I think the last half of this article is searching in vain for any answer other than the obvious and painful (to liberals) truth... the public schools are in the crapper and caring parents will not accept it anymore, no matter the price. These are their children you're talking about. When push comes to shove, everyone wants to be a good citizen and contribute to the community but not at the price of giving their children a thrid world education.
The first part of the article laments (in suggestive tones and classist language) that parents who don't send their kids to public schools are greedy and only care about themselves rather than the community as a whole.
I'm not at all suprised that such a hit piece comes on the eve of the Supreme Court hearing arguments in the Zellman (Cleveland schools) case.
I did not dig deep into the site to find test scores, but I found some Gresham district scores on a Gresham High School Site this morning.
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