Sunday, March 7, 2010

Integrated Schools or Neighborhood Schools?

There has been a great deal of discussion in our county on whether the Wake County should abandon the program that buses children from their neighborhoods to schools in other neighborhoods in order to maintain balance of children from more well-to-do families and those from less well-to-do families.

I believe that it is possible to work for Integrated Neighborhood schools. That would imply that we have neighborhoods that are integrated economically. So the question is: what is it that keeps neighborhoods segregated economically? One of the factors is zoning and neighborhood covenants. Many of these mandate that only certain lot sizes or certain house sizes and that houses and business be built with parking privileges attached to them.

Things that need to be discussed are:
What is the purpose of zoning?
Why is it necessary?
Who is in favor of it?
Does it shut out the working poor from living in much of the city/county?
Does it, in effect, segregate?

1 comment:

  1. Hey, the hot things now are "free market" (which zoning restrictions often impede) and, on the other side, equal opportunity (these restrictions limit opportunity, restrict housing and make it less affordable). Good memes to have in your arsenal as you battle for just liberty.

    ReplyDelete