US: Better schools in wealthier areas

After 13 years in the Washington, DC area, homemaker Sherri Carmichael and her business consultant husband, Lawson, had had enough of the stress and traffic.

They decided to move: somewhere with good economic prospects that was vibrant, yet small - and had good schools for their daughters, then three and six.

They settled on Chapel Hill, a town of 58,000 with an abundance of universities, a highly educated demographic and a school district consistently ranked among the top in the region.

Said Ms Carmichael, 45, who moved with her family in 2005:

"We looked at other places but the schools weren't that good."

Like her, marketing consultant Holly Lewis, 48, sold "a far nicer" home in Durham to move a few kilometres to Chapel Hill in search of a good school fit. She said: "We spared no effort to make sure the children had the best educational experience."

The vast majority of children in the United States attend public schools which are geographically zoned for enrolment, so families often choose communities in which to live for their schools.

With states responsible for public schools - paid for through a mix of state funds and local taxes - there are huge variations in levels of funding and performance throughout the country. Good school districts tend to be a magnet, drawing more affluent families who place a premium on education and are willing to pay higher taxes to ensure better quality.

So it is not a surprise good school districts are often in richer areas.

According to Chapel Hill realtor Eric White, homes that straddle municipal lines draw different prices depending on whether they are zoned for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools or schools in the other counties:

"Houses within the CHCCS system do demand a higher price, tend to appreciate at a higher rate, and usually sell quicker than those that are not in the system."

Such fault lines are common.

In California's Silicon Valley, for instance, the Palo Alto school district, with its affluent and highly educated populace, is perceived to be better than its neighbours in Mountain View, Los Altos or Menlo Park, and this is reflected significantly in real estate prices, said resident Jean Goyal.

"The quality of education in the US is for the most part determined by zip code," said CHCCS superintendent Tom Forcella. The problem with this is that schools in poor areas then get less support from their communities, he said.

Some towns make sure the poor are not priced out: they may demand that new developments in desirable school zones set aside some affordable housing; establish special "magnet" schools that admit children from across the usual boundaries; or do away with geographic zones and allocate enrolment some other way.

But if funding for public education continues to fall, as it has for the past five years, parents may start choosing private schools in greater numbers, and this would open up an even greater divide between rich and poor, said Dr Forcella.


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