Re: “Colorado families begin picking their top schools in annual rite,” Jan. 23 news story.
Your article regarding families picking their schools sounds like some free-market, utopian process. Conversely, it is creating negative consequences. Where once our neighborhood children boarded buses together, attended school carnivals together and played on the same soccer teams, now parents are running their children to disparate schools and functions all over town. People no longer share a sense of community with their neighbors since they’re no longer side by side in the bleachers or selling tickets at the PTA bake sale. It is another symptom of a crumbling society. We fear and mistrust those whom we do not know. The other consequence is the draining of talent from neighborhood schools. Mobile, more affluent families research and transport their children to schools they deem as better, leaving families with transportation and time challenges at local schools. This, in turn, creates economically segregated schools. Inequality of opportunity seldom creates favorable outcomes.
Suzanne Walker, Longmont
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