Horace Mann describes "White Flight"... in 1842

From a text on the social underpinnings of education (picked up on whim), a selection from Horace Mann.

I have met many individuals, who, having failed to obtain any improvement in the means of education in their respective places of residence, have removed to towns whose schools were good, believing the sacrifice of a hundred, or even of several hundred dollars, to be nothing, in comparison with the value of the school privileges secured for their children by such removal.  Still more frequently, when other circumstances have rendered a change of domicile expedient, has this principle of selection governed in choosing a residence.

-  Fifth Annual Report to the Board of Education of Massachusetts, 1842

I don't think I can understand that without understanding more about public education in MA at that time.  How many towns had schools?  What percentage of the child population attended them, and what were their economic characteristics?  Were they a trendy municipal feature like highways in the fifties or streetcars today, or did they have deeper community roots?  It's an interesting quote either way.

PPS looking grim

Conservatives rail against social security, warning young people not to assume it will be viable when they retire. I feel that way when I look at PPS. Increasingly I think it won't be able to provide an acceptable level of education to my kids. It doesn't mean private school but it does mean I'll treat it like a tool, one of many needed to get the job done.

I wonder how many other parents feel that way?  I wonder what we could do on our own if we put our heads together?

For-Profit College=Monster?

per the Economist.  I don't understand their criticism.  If students are abusing education loans and taking on too much debt, maybe the government shouldn't lend them so much money?  I don't see how that is the responsibility of the colleges.

More broadly, the article casts aspersions because the for-profits are picking up excess demand that community colleges can't meet.  Why is this a bad thing?  Would the world be better if students unable to go to community college had nowhere to go?