High Quality “School Communities” – Finally…21st Century thinking

How many of you chose a neighborhood because of the quality of the local schools there? I bet quite a few of made your decision that way but I bet you’re also concerned about the general trend of public schools in our country.  The problems in our worst schools become a problem for the nation.  More specifically they affect our communities.  Good schools attract families who care about education.  Bad schools are populated with many families who have no choice in the matter. The problem is EVERY public school should be a good school. No child in our country should be disadvantaged because of the quality of their school.

I just read an article on the Urban Planning Institute’s website by an educator who is also engaged in the development aspects of schools. David Ethan Greenberg makes some very interesting observations about the incentives and good solid thinking that is needed to encourage developers and school districts to access and build the resources needed to sustain quality education in our neighborhoods.

“Public schools indisputably influence real estate values.’ Given that the United States is widely perceived as falling behind in generating educated students able to compete in the global marketplace, and given the increasing anxiety of parents about the need for their children to become competitive by attending four-year colleges and beyond, good public schools could become the ultimate amenity for master-planned developments.”

Aha…new urbanist communities fit the bill! Here we have a community trend that is tailor made for the kind of creative thinking and cooperation that is suggested by Mr. Greenberg. Developers don’t get involved in school development and usually leave that to the school district. But school districts barely have enough to address deteriorating facilities and other issues in their existing schools. We end up with a situation where new developments are often without adequate schools or have insufficient space in their schools for the growing community. Mr. Greenberg gives an example of the following best practice to deal with this problem:

“Create an independent entity to advocate for school quality. Sophisticated developers are creating and funding nonprofit foundations, such as the Stapleton Foundation and the Foundation for Educational Excellence, to assume responsibility for ensuring that publicly funded schools are providing high-quality instruction. These foundations, often funded by development or transfer fees, bring in educational experts to help keep school district leaders current on “best practices,” to provide supplemental programs for schools, to underwrite design competitions for new school facilities, to pay for recruiting school leaders, to help in grant writing, and to take advantage of other opportunities as they come along.”

Not only is this a good idea for new developments, but I think struggling inner city schools could also benefit from similar strategies (re: setting up non-profit foundations).

We all value high-quality schools in our neighborhoods and we need to encourage more creative and progressive thinking between developers, city planners and our city politicians to ensure that sustainable solutions can be put in place to support quality public schools in every community throughout our country.