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These are hard problems, and there are many built-in assumptions with funding.

I live in a small city with lots of challenges. Our overall per-pupil spending is about $24,000. In what is probably considered the best suburban district in the region, the per-pupil spending is about $19,000.

There are definitely school funding issues, but money is being over-credited in these types of stories. The social and family situations are much bigger predictors than the school.

IMO, the schools are being expected to fill gaps in social services, and doing so is both expensive and ineffective.

Grew up near an inner-city school district that underwent multi-decade federal court supervision. Ordered per-pupil funding was the highest for any district in the state, careful monitoring by nearby University personnel, etc. The overall effect was somewhere between minimal and non-existent.

No idea how this gets fixed, but it's not money. If the culture among the cool kids is that it's not cool to learn, not cool to try, you can pour in an ocean of money, and it won't matter.

>> If one wants to send their kids to a good school you HAVE to buy a single family home in that school district.

Not true. Many districts have open enrollment.

It used to be that way in our district. It didn't stop some people from claiming their kids lived with relatives and that sort of thing. It used to be limited to x amount of students but the laws changed.

It's good for the kids, but bad for the schools overall. The more 'bad kids' you get, the worse the schools get, and then the 'good kids' start going to other districts as well.

In Ohio, most schools permit open enrollment, but virtually none of the school districs surrounding the major metropolitan areas do. Coincidentally, while there are plenty of poor children in both rural and urban areas in Ohio, it is only in the metropolitan areas that there are large populations of non-white students. These students are shut out of the wealthier, whiter, better-ranked suburban school districts.

> For some reason, many of these homes are massive McMansions with 4 bedrooms, 2 car garage, backyard etc. This makes it even more expensive to either own or rent (compared to an apartment) and completely inaccessible to a lower-middle-class family.

The reason isn't mysterious. That is what keeps the quality of the school up.

It isn't that simple. The public high school I went to is one of the best in the country and was largely comprised of middle class and upper middle class families. The very wealthy largely sent their kids to nearby private schools. The parents of the children at my school were largely professionals / tradesmen / small business owners, worked incredibly hard to get access to the school district (I know mine certainly did), and placed a large priority on education. This resulted in a culture of parental involvement in the schools / their childrens' education and a competitive academic spirit which kept standards high. High property taxes also produced a funding model where at least 95+% of funding was coming from local taxes, local bonds, and communal fund raising by engaged parents. Local people supporting their community schools because they cared. These were being levied against regular homes as well as large homes.

There were attempts made to bus in people from outside but they were fought tooth and nail by families across the income spectrum in the district because the perception was that it was unfair that they had to work extremely hard to get access to these resources but other people could simply show up and get it for free.

I'd be very curious about any study about outcomes for good school-type kids (i.e., ones whose parents could afford to buy a nice house and send them to a good school) who go to schools in poor neighborhoods. Does anyone know of such a study?

Public education differs pretty widely from state to state. However, there has been a general trend to start allowing charter schools to exist and for them to allow for enrollment based off of broader geographic area.

Specifically here in Arkansas the laws have created a mess. Unintended consequence or planned loophole, but in any case you pretty much can have your kid apply to any charter school in this state. https://medium.com/orchestrating-change/hey-arkansas-loophol...

It's so bad that Tim Tebow's high school homeschool/football shenannigans are being recreated here. Public school districts are being caught working towards having statewide recruitment for high school football teams. https://medium.com/orchestrating-change/deep-benches-shallow...

> If one wants to send their kids to a good school you HAVE to buy a single family home in that school district.

Not sure where you are located, but my experience in California is that renting an apartment is sufficient. Granted, there may be places that have very few apartments, but you can still rent a home/townhome.

Also, in some areas (I grew up in Sacramento), you can "open enroll" into magnet schools that are out of your area. I went to the top school in Sacramento despite living outside the local area.