Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

hoco718 t1_ivv98qc wrote

Reply to comment by dirtycrabcakes in Can anyone explain how people are voting for BOE? by freecain

Since this makes you sad, maybe I can help rationalize it?

Whether we like it or not, school district has a huge impact on home value. You're asking a small number of people in redistricted areas to pay the entire cost of equity. 10-20% of a home's value is equal to a down payment. That is a ton of money... Tens of thousands of dollars. I'm not rich and people (including myself) spent many many years to save up for it. No one wants to be the unlucky ones who have to pay for it all.

It's actually sort of poetic that you want to "promote equity" in such an inequitable way.

I'd consider supporting measures addressing equity if the burden wasn't placed on a concentrated segment of people. History tells me the people who feel the brunt of redistricting aren't going to be the "rich, wealthy, and privileged". Those polygons don't change.

Edit: Formatting.

3

dirtycrabcakes t1_ivvbe49 wrote

First off - it's not the County's responsibility to protect your home values. That should have ZERO consideration when it comes to EDUCATIONAL decisions.

We are talking about property values in the one of the wealthiest counties in one of the the wealthiest states. Property values are not a "concern" here. And perhaps property values would not vary so widely, if certain communities didn't work so hard to segregate themselves from those they see themselves as better than.

And here's what makes me sad. Columbia has it written into it's core values that it is a community of shared resources and actively looks to integrate communities of varying economic status, attending the same schools, etc.

Then you have communities like Maple Lawn the get built overnight, sit nearly vacant for years before the demand catches up. Then once demand is there and people say "now we need affordable housing" and Maple Lawn residents say "oh but the infrastructure can't support it!!!" And they spend all of their money and political capital to keep "the poors" away from their community. No - they must go live in Columbia. And so what happens? You successfully segregate yourselves. And then the schools become segregated. And now the board has to resort to redistricting in order to correct that.

It's modern day segregation hidden behind property values. So yeah... pay the fuck up.

6

hoco718 t1_ivveloz wrote

You might not like/disagree with it, but I'm just explaining why some people don't want redistricting. You're still putting the burden unfairly on a small number of households which I think is wrong.

Why shouldn't property values be considered in educational decisions? Last I remembered... Property taxes pay for education?

I'd say if there was a county-paid reimbursement for homeowners/values that are affected from redistricting then it would be A'Okay with me-- that means everyone is equally paying for the cost/raise taxes. However, I doubt that would get support and it's easier to mess with a small number of polygons/people.

Edit: I wanted to add a bit more about racial claims. It's not about segregation, at least not for Chen.

This is the demographics of HoCo schools: https://www.hcpss.org/about-us/facts/

These are the demographics of the schools his kids attend:

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_es_hammond.pdf

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_ms_hammond.pdf

https://www.hcpss.org/f/schools/profiles/prof_hs_reservoir.pdf

They are actually pretty close to HoCo average.

1