{"id":5839,"date":"2017-01-14T12:43:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T18:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=5839"},"modified":"2017-01-14T12:43:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T18:43:02","slug":"betsy-de-vos-solve-two-income-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/01\/betsy-de-vos-solve-two-income-trap.html","title":{"rendered":"Could Betsy De Vos solve the Two-Income Trap?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/p>\n

The nomination of Betsy De Vos to head the Department of Education has brought up, again, the question of vouchers and voucher-like systems, at least on twitter and facebook. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve been thinking.<\/p>\n

There are reasonable arguments in favor of and against voucher\/schools of choice\/charter school systems. \u00a0On the one hand, these systems create winners and losers, and the loser-school systems bear burdensome legacy costs, if the public schools can\u2019t respond to the situation by upping their game. \u00a0Parents who can\u2019t transport their kids to a better school lose out too, as do motivated kids with indifferent parents.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, to shrug off poor public schools, and lack of family choice, with statements such as, \u201cthe parents should just get involved in improving their local public school\u201d is missing the point. \u00a0In some cases, they may make attempts that are rebuffed by an administration and a teacher\u2019s union that figures that parents have no choice, anyway. \u00a0Even before that point, the \u201cyou should just get involved\u201d presumes that the parents actually have the time and the skill set to do so, and there\u2019s not all that much that parental involvement can remedy. \u00a0But in most cases, regardless of what they should or shouldn\u2019t do, the practical effect is that those parents respond by moving \u2014 the classic \u201cvoting with your feet.\u201d \u00a0And there are all manner of consequences to a system that says, \u201cthe only way you can give your child a better school is to move\u201d (or, yes, by sending your child to a parochial or private school, but for most families, that\u2019s not under consideration): \u00a0poor areas lose families who could stabilize the neighborhood, even if their children aren\u2019t classmates of their neighbors, and wealthier areas see housing prices go up as families are willing to pay escalating prices for the opportunity to send their children to a \u201cgood school\u201d \u2014 both in terms of quality of instruction and quality of their classmates. \u00a0 And \u201cescalating prices\u201d doesn\u2019t refer just to the cost of real estate taxes, but a sort of bidding war as the top 25th percentile of American families want to get into the top 10th percentile-ranked schools, for example. \u00a0 And as housing prices go up, families increasingly struggle to pay their mortgage \u2014 because, much as we\u2019ve deluded ourselves that housing price increases are a matter of wealth-building, the reality is that this is a real burden for families.<\/p>\n

There was a book about this, which Amazon tells me is even older than I had remembered: \u00a0The Two-Income Trap<\/a>, from 2003. \u00a0Sure, there\u2019s a lot more to it, but that was a key part of it, as I recall. \u00a0(And yes, maybe I\u2019ll check this out and re-read it the next time I\u2019m at the library.)<\/p>\n

So a more widespread voucher\/charter school\/school of choice system could have much wider impacts.<\/p>\n

Yes, Detroit is bleeding population. \u00a0And at the same time, the Detroit school system has lost massive numbers of students<\/a> to non-public schools, or public schools outside of its borders.<\/p>\n

What would the city be like if those parents didn\u2019t have these alternative options? \u00a0Yes, DPS wouldn\u2019t be in such financial straights. \u00a0But at the same time \u2014 and we don\u2019t really know \u2014 it seems likely that the population loss among the middle class would have been even greater, that the possibilities of schools outside the DPS system may have held onto families who would have otherwise abandoned Detroit as well. \u00a0And the city is now trying to bring new middle-class residents into its \u201cmidtown\u201d developments, but, again, it would be a pretty tough sell, for families at least, if there weren\u2019t non-DPS options.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s no easy answer. \u00a0Each alternative \u2014 neighborhood schools, i.e., \u201cyou get what you get and you don\u2019t throw a fit\u201d vs. mobility options \u2014 have real benefits and real costs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

image: \u00a0from flickr: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/wwworks\/15344079560; by woodleywonderworks<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nomination of Betsy De Vos to head the Department of Education has brought up, again, the question of vouchers and voucher-like systems, at least on twitter and facebook. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve been thinking. There are reasonable arguments in favor of and against voucher\/schools of choice\/charter school systems. \u00a0On the one hand, these systems create […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":5387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,527,526],"class_list":["post-5839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-detroit","tag-schools-of-choice","tag-vouchers"],"yoast_head":"\nCould Betsy De Vos solve the Two-Income Trap?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The nomination of Betsy De Vos to head the Department of Education has brought up, again, the question of vouchers and voucher-like systems, at least on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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