This factoid doesn't mean what it appears to mean.
I live in California, in Silicon Valley, which is one of the more expensive parts of California. I live in Mountain View, which is probably a *bit* on the expensive side for Silicon Valley, but not anywhere close to the most expensive city.
Median sale price for single family houses in Mountain View is almost $1M. This probably gets you about 2000 square feet, and a bit of back yard.
*BUT* ... we also have a bunch of *relatively* poor people living in Mountain View. These people live in apartments. A lot of these people are Mexican or recent immigrants from Mexico. Their kids tend not to do as well on the reading and math tests as the kids whose parents can and do afford the $1M houses.
But I don't think we can conclude much from the fact that these kids live in apartments in a city with expensive houses. The demographics of the two groups are very different, even if they go to the same public school district.
The kids in the apartments are *not* middle class (not for California) even though the nearby houses are expensive.
Source: Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice
1 comment:
Hi Ken,
This factoid doesn't mean what it appears to mean.
I live in California, in Silicon Valley, which is one of the more expensive parts of California. I live in Mountain View, which is probably a *bit* on the expensive side for Silicon Valley, but not anywhere close to the most expensive city.
Median sale price for single family houses in Mountain View is almost $1M. This probably gets you about 2000 square feet, and a bit of back yard.
*BUT* ... we also have a bunch of *relatively* poor people living in Mountain View. These people live in apartments. A lot of these people are Mexican or recent immigrants from Mexico. Their kids tend not to do as well on the reading and math tests as the kids whose parents can and do afford the $1M houses.
But I don't think we can conclude much from the fact that these kids live in apartments in a city with expensive houses. The demographics of the two groups are very different, even if they go to the same public school district.
The kids in the apartments are *not* middle class (not for California) even though the nearby houses are expensive.
-Mark Roulo
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