Is this it?

[kcdcchef]

YES, THIS IS IT. WE ARE ALL SAYING FUCK IT AND MOVING TO MYSPACE AND FACEBOOK.

[wetpaint]

First you say you understand the movement to suburbanize but do you accept it?  Yes, white people left the central cities but are you trying to put the decline of the cities entirely on the white flight?  The decay of the cities was caused by many things that happened in our society.  But to blame my parents, or any parent for that matter, for the decay by their moving of the family from the central part of KCK to an area that was then outside of KCMO city limits on the southside is way off-base.  And much like almost 22 years ago my wife and I moved our family from the Hickman Mills area to the Red Bridge area out intent was to have a better environment for our children and if that caused a little decline in the Hickman Mills area then sobeit.

My daughter will be born sometime in the next few weeks. I love KCMO, but if we can't find a decent school for her in a few years, we'll be packing up and moving to the burbs. We'll hate it, but we'll do it.

[cdm2p]

My daughter will be born sometime in the next few weeks. I love KCMO, but if we can't find a decent school for her in a few years, we'll be packing up and moving to the burbs. We'll hate it, but we'll do it.

I moved to KCMO 12 years ago before I had any kids.  I sincerely thought that the KCMO school district would improve.  Boy was I wrong.  My kids are now in private schools.  I thought about moving to Shoal Creek but that felt too much like living in Disneyland.  Besides, a 30 minute communte to my job downtown was more than I could stomach.

[KCMax]

This point shouldn't be lost. American cities were often dirty, racist, classist places where lots of horrific things took place. I can understand the movement to suburbanize. However, instead of improving the conditions in our central cities...white people packed up, abandoned them and destroyed what was left for parking or cheap fast food and light industrial. The war for urban America is one to revitalize and improve our central city at any cost. 

There is some irony that earlier last century, progressive reformers sought to kill cities and promote suburban life because cities were thought to be bad for the environment, bad for building a sense of community, and bad for public health. I think "white flight" is probably an inaccurate term for what happened. Not everyone left because scary black people moved closer to them. Most cities were in an awful decline, and suburbs provided an attractive alternative.

I don't think that should matter much now, and I think you're seeing the trend reverse somewhat, or at least mitigate.

[voltopt]

I moved to KCMO 12 years ago before I had any kids.  I sincerely thought that the KCMO school district would improve.  Boy was I wrong.  My kids are now in private schools.  I thought about moving to Shoal Creek but that felt too much like living in Disneyland.  Besides, a 30 minute communte to my job downtown was more than I could stomach.

My mom teaches in the KCMO school district - and her school performs adequately and I fully expect to send my children to it or another school of similar performance in the KC district, if I'm living in this region when I have kids.

[KCMax]

I moved to KCMO 12 years ago before I had any kids.  I sincerely thought that the KCMO school district would improve.  Boy was I wrong.  My kids are now in private schools.  I thought about moving to Shoal Creek but that felt too much like living in Disneyland.  Besides, a 30 minute communte to my job downtown was more than I could stomach.

What school was problematic and what specifically were the problems?

[Midtownkid]

Stabbings at westport high?  Huge drop out rates?  Specific problems: Parents who don't care...

[voltopt]

I asked my mom, who became a teacher in the KCMO district about 4 years ago, if she would send me to the school she teaches at now.  Before she taught in the district she taught in Catholic schools, which I naturally attended.  She said she would not hesitate to have me educated at her current school.

[cdm2p]

Stabbings at westport high?  Huge drop out rates?  Specific problems: Parents who don't care...

Exactly.

[Highlander]

I asked my mom, who became a teacher in the KCMO district about 4 years ago, if she would send me to the school she teaches at now.  Before she taught in the district she taught in Catholic schools, which I naturally attended.  She said she would not hesitate to have me educated at her current school.

What grade does she teach?  My wife taught elementary school in downtown KCK for several years.  Elementary school was not that bad but there was no way she would ever have taught at the middle school or high school level there. 

[voltopt]

She teaches 7th Grade - probably the most difficult grade to teach.  The school is a K-8 school - I'll have to ask her in greater detail why she has this newer view of my education.  When I was choosing a high school, I believe my parents would have been fine with me attending Westport, Lincoln, or Paseo had I insisted - it was in 1992 and there was a lot of local interest in magnet schools - or Center High School, which is the neighborhood I lived in.  I didn't insist - how could I know at age 14 - and I went to a private high school on scholarship and work study.

[ComandanteCero]

this would be my urban educational plan for any possible offspring: send them to school in KCMO for elementary, put them in to a private school for middle school and then have them test into a magnet school for high school.  If they can't test into a magnet school i'd have to seriously weigh the economics of moving to the burbs vs enrolling in a private school. 

[aknowledgeableperson]

  When I was choosing a high school, I believe my parents would have been fine with me attending Westport, Lincoln, or Paseo had I insisted - it was in 1992 and there was a lot of local interest in magnet schools - or Center High School, which is the neighborhood I lived in. 

That was one thing I could not figure out.  White kids could choose any school in the district to attend but black kids were restricted.  And to top that a white kid from outside the district could choose any high school in the district to attend, and have a cab take him or her to and from school, but a black kid outside the district did not have that ability.

Talk about racial discrimination.