In the ZONE!

As I noted a couple of months ago, I listen to the radio as I am out and about in the mornings, and occasionally something grabs my attention. Yesterday I heard this:

(quoted text follows)

by Nancy Marshall-Genzer

Marketplace Morning Report for Thursday, April 19, 2012

Jeremy Hobson: A report out today from the Brookings Institution offers a theory on how to improve education for poor kids -- change zoning laws.

For an explanation, here's Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzer from our Wealth and Poverty Desk.

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Nancy Marshall-Genzer: It’s a busy morning at the Bruce Monroe Elementary School in Washington. Third-grader Marcus King sits to one side of his classroom, by himself. His mother, Theresa King, meets me there to talk about her dreams for Marcus, who has special needs. First off, a move to a better school district.

Theresa King: I would go. No question. I would definitely go.

King moved to Washington less than a year ago from a Maryland suburb, where Marcus’s classes were small.

King: He needs that one-on-one. Not just someone standing there, saying take out a piece of paper, write your name -- because he doesn’t understand that.

When King lost her job in Maryland, she and Marcus moved into public housing in the city. It wasn’t available in the suburbs.

Jonathan Rothwell says that’s no accident. He wrote the Brookings report on zoning.

Jonathan Rothwell: In most metropolitan areas, it’s impossible to build affordable housing in affluent neighborhoods because of zoning laws.

Those laws don’t allow apartment buildings or townhouses. Rothwell says zoning laws should be changed to require construction of affordable housing so low-income students can go to the best schools.

But urban policy consultant Wendell Cox says ultimately...

Wendell Cox: The way to improve educational performance is by fixing the schools.

In every neighborhood. Rothwell says that’ll take years. It’s more practical to change zoning laws to give kids like Marcus King a better education, so they can scramble a little higher on the economic ladder.

In Washington, I’m Nancy Marshall-Genzer for Marketplace.

About the author

Nancy Marshall-Genzer is a senior reporter for Marketplace based in Washington, D.C. covering daily news.

(back to me)

We have an interesting zoning situation here in Mont Belvieu. There are only two of five zones in the City which do not allow for multi-family housing of some kind. This is good for several reasons. First, it allows us to build integrated neighborhoods, allowing people of all different stripes to live close to each other. Second, it allows people to move through their lives having different housing choices that give them opportunities to stay in the community, building a relationship with the people who live here as well as with the community itself. Also, it avoids the kinds of problems the article I've copied above notes. We have a very progressive and equitable system in our City. It is doubtful that we will need more than one high school in our community. But if we ever did, we should find that there are not the kinds of problems that they've experienced in other metro areas as they've developed, as far as education access is concerned. And that, all in all, is a very good thing.