Objective: Given a demographic profile of a Hartford family, how would you obtain information and make decisions about buying versus renting in the city or surrounding suburbs, and the type of school your child would attend?
For this particular home simulation assignment, I found my results somewhat unsettling. To begin, I calculated an appropriate home price that my family could afford given the current economic situation (anywhere between conservatively $127,638.63 and aggressively $143,227.27). To my surprise, I found many homes in surrounding suburbs that were within this budget; however, the qualities of life were entirely lacking compared to wealthier areas of the state.
One part of the assignment entailed doing some research on the schools my children would be able to attend if we decide to move to one of these suburbs (Manchester, Windsor Locks, E. Windsor, and Bloomfield). To begin, Manchester has 29 schools that are located within its district. However, after having visited the online journal of “Manchester Patch,” I regretfully discovered that the 2012 CMT and CAPT test scores fell under the state average level in both proficiency and goal. The author of the article argued that a significant contributor in these results pertains to the lack of funding that is invested into the school. Unfortunately, this poor performance in both the CAPT and CMT scores seemed to be a trend within all of the other potential school districts (Windsor Locks, E. Windsor, and Bloomfield) I picked out for my family. Additionally, I feel as though the arts are imperative for a child’s success in the world and thus I found it essential that the school I choose to send my children to has an adequate arts program. Unfortunately, the arts suffered coincidently with the suffered budget. Most of the schools offered a mere arts class or an afterschool choral group. This did not seem fit.
This particular assignment was incredibly eye opening in terms of how unjust the public educational system of Connecticut (as well as in other states of America) is. I obtained a large amount of the data I used for my project from the website, www.schooldigger.com. This website was essentially a guide to all of the schools in Connecticut—their rankings, student and parent reviews, and scores—which in effect give great insight into the qualities of life of each respected district. To my dismay, the trends in the rankings reflected the economic status of each town. All of the schools that were located within Fairfield County (arguably one of the wealthiest counties in the state) dominated the “Top 10 Schools in the State” list. It is undeniable that there is a significant discrepancy in the funding to the schools that are not as affluent. It is terrible to think that a child must sacrifice his or her level of education simply because of financial matters. Children should not be brought into the world neither at a disadvantage nor at an advantage, simply because of the socio-economic status in which they were born into.