Comments ellenmccullough has made

Urban renewal - so hot right now

My reaction to Akst' post is twofold:

(1) I want to see some numbers that school quality is one of the greatest determinants of where people decide to live.  His evidence is anecdotal on this point, yet it is crucial to his central argument.  If this can indeed be well-documented, then...

(2) Why not show these numbers to urban developers?  Residential real estate development is big business, and urban renewal is in fashion.  Some forward-minded real estate developer could buy up lots of land on the cheap, pour lots of money (and effort) into improving the school system, and then benefit from the influence of better schools on real estate prices.  I smell public-private partnerships!  There are a few problems with my argument - most notably the free rider problem that developers might face.  However, everyone might win if poorly performing urban schools look to unconventional sources of income to break out of the performance-enrollment conundrum.On School choice could be an answer to sprawl posted 4 years, 1 month ago 24 Responses