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JBizznass t1_j9pf8dl wrote

I would hypothesize that a good number of the type of families who would previously be fighting for those charter spots just said fuck it during covid and moved to the burbs where their kids were garunteed to get a good education and not have to hope and pray that they were chosen in a lottery.

Remote work unchained a lot of middle class professionals from city life and many took advantage of that to get their kids to better school systems. And I’ve said it before and will say it again, all at a cost of living that is equal to or even possibly lower than being in the city. If the city wants to retain these families the tax burden needs to go down and services need to go up.

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EnemyOfEloquence t1_j9qsyf1 wrote

I'd like to get back on my soapbox and say fuck the wage tax.

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JBizznass t1_j9qwl20 wrote

It’s super regressive and drives business and middle, upper middle, and wealthy taxpayers out of the city. The city’s problems are aren’t going to get fixed until it’s wage taxes and business taxes are in line with the suburban business hubs it competes with.

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AbsentEmpire OP t1_j9pures wrote

I think the article would have been better if they also referenced in the current number of school age children in the city, along with public and private school enrollments compared with pre and post pandemic to really get a picture of what families with children are doing.

I think the idea that parents who went to private during 2020 because they open and have just opted to stay in them, is also a good theory.

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JBizznass t1_j9qvx6t wrote

If you are paying for private school and you don’t have to live in the city (like as a job requirement) it doesn’t make financial sense to stay in the city. Tuition at Roman Catholic is over $10k a year for one student. My property taxes in Delco for a 3k sq ft house on a quarter acre is less than that and have access to a top tier public school. And don’t pay any wage taxes. Why would you stay and pay more for less?

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AbsentEmpire OP t1_j9rpgtw wrote

Well as another commenter suggested for one of the possible reasons there are so many charter applications from the Northeast, is that they're multi general residents with family and friends who live around them, and they don't want to give that up, so they pay for private school.

It's a personal choice where finance isn't the sole factor for decision making, factors such as proximity of your support network, the inconvenience of moving versus the quality of the neighborhood you're currently in, etc.

Otherwise you're right, if one was to make a choice purely based on finance and quality of government services, moving to the suburbs is the better option every single time without question.

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