The Market for Public Education
What does it cost to send your child to a good school? According to a Brookings study, $205,000:
Across the 100 largest metropolitan areas, housing costs an average of 2.4 times as much, or nearly $11,000 more per year, near a high-scoring public school than near a low-scoring public school.
This housing cost gap reflects that home values are $205,000 higher on average in the neighborhoods of high-scoring versus low-scoring schools. Near high-scoring schools, typical homes have 1.5 additional rooms and the share of housing units that are rented is roughly 30 percentage points lower than in neighborhoods near low-scoring schools.
See my article on this phenomenon in the Howard Law Review and a study of similar results in Dallas. HT: Brad Plumer at the Ezra Klein blog.
Ahh, so we have a system of school choice after all. It just doesn’t work for poor people.
This is a chicken / egg-type issue. Are the schools good in Highland Park (Dallas area) because wealthy, educated people live there and are willing to pay for excellence in public education? Or did people move to enclaves like Highland Park (paying a premium) because they are fleeing the poor schools in the Dallas Independent School District? Or, maybe, the schools are good in Highland Park because the wealthy, educated parents demand excellence of their children.
Basically, it’s likely a combination of all the above. You cannot throw money at lower-performing Dallas schools and make them perform like Highland Park schools. Neither can you take random kids from lower-performing Dallas schools, drop them into Highland Park ISD, and expect them to perform as well as the kids in Highland Park.
ditto Buster.