David Wilson writes: on 10/26/01 9:20 AM, David Wilson at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote > The short and simple answer to many of your questions is marry the > affordable housing problem with school performance problem to get at a > solution. Work at desegregating residential neighborhoods by creating > more affordable units in more neighbhorhoods. Target racially mixed > neighborhoods for the "premier" schools and make mortgage and home repair > money more available for these neighborhoods. Implement the rule, that if > you move in to the neighborhood, your kids get to go to these schools.
David - this is a good idea but I meant to foreclose changing housing patterns as an answer. It's too easy, and not easy enough. Having lived in town 20 years, I don't think we can expect the school-segregation problem to be solved by integrating housing. It's a hope that's always held out by community school proponents - and one I share. However, we've made no progress toward it and I don't think we can count on major progress in my lifetime. Even 4,000 new units, an ambitious goal sought by some affordable housing proponents, would not fundamentally alter citywide housing patterns, I'm guessing. I'm not saying we shouldn't pursue desegregating residential neighborhoods, aggressively. That may happen somewhat as a minority middle-class emerges, though I seriously doubt it will happen on a class basis. I'm just saying let's not rely on it to solve community-school/segregation situation that exists right now. Again, my hope is that school board candidates will either acknowledge the current community-school/segregation situation as fundamentally the best available, or speak to how they would fix it...in the near- and mid-term, not long-term. David Brauer King Field - Ward 10 _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
