Just Post

I don't know about this. I'm a teacher, and I've taught poor kids and wealthy kids. The way I see the home value/education value thing is that, to some degree, it's a self-perpetuating cycle.

There are always exceptions, but generally the pattern I have seen is that educated people who are successful and have money also want their children to be educated and successful. These parents have steady jobs, often with good hours, so they can help with homework or pay for tutors or services like Kumon to supplement their struggling kids' learning. So even if schools in the rich neighborhoods don't get a lot of funding from property taxes, they still perform fairly well.

Uneducated people are less likely to value education for their kids. My husband (also a teacher) heard a father tell his son that the kid shouldn't try to go to college "because you're not better than me." The kid was close to the top of his class and could have won some competitive scholarships.

Parents who struggle to make ends meet are more likely to work jobs with odd hours or even multiple jobs, so they're less likely to have time to sit down and do homework with their kids. Tutors are an extravagance they cannot afford.

There are a lot of factors at play in the overall literacy rate and public education quality issue that is at the heart of the original post. Personal greed versus the public good (in the form of opposing property taxes) is a part of it, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Family values, local and state politics (I'm looking at you, vouchers and charter schools), and even the consistent undervaluing of "women's work" all play a role in school funding and the general level of literacy in the population at large.