Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Great Chapel Hill schools

Posted on April 1, 2010April 1, 2010 by Staff

STEVE PEHA

As the weather warms, my wife and I like to dine on our screened-in front porch, and if the sun is still out when we finish, we often take a postprandial promenade around the neighborhood. The arrival of spring means that house-selling season has also arrived, so we’re curious about which houses on the block are on the block. It’s true what they say, you know: March roars in like a lion and out like a mortgage broker.

We’re not much on shopping for dream houses. Our tiny two-bedroom suits us just fine. And yet, we are drawn like moth to flame by those little “info tubes” and flier-holder-thingies where prospective purchasers can peruse the one-sheet for all the particulars.

2517 square feet. 4 bedrooms. 2.5 baths. Finished basement with “bonus” room. Etc. Every offering is different; but nearly every flier it seems includes the phrase “Great Chapel Hill schools.” Apparently, it’s quite valuable to live within district boundaries, and real estate agents like potential buyers to know that they are buying more than just bedrooms, bathrooms and “bonus” rooms.

So I was wondering: Just how much is the line “Great Chapel Hill schools” worth? The answer I received from sources in the real estate community was akin to, “You have no idea how important this is! The value can be extraordinary.”

Apparently, there’s even a development in which a lucky family can find a house just within district boundaries while the unlucky next-door neighbors have to send their kids to Durham. So coveted is our district that unlucky next-door neighbors have been known to hire lawyers to sue for the right to send their kids to “Great Chapel Hill schools.”

So if you own a home within the district, you are profiting in several ways from “Great Chapel Hill schools.” Granted, you may have paid a premium to enter the market, but your home will rise in value faster than others when times are good and hold its value more reliably when times are bad. When you add to this the fact that you won’t be thinking about sending your kids to private school, you may be saving another $10k per tot each year, $20k a year for high schoolers.

But what if those real estate fliers didn’t say, “Great Chapel Hill schools”? What if they said, “One of the largest achievement gaps in the nation”? I wonder what the loss in property values would be the day that phrase showed up on the real estate radar?

Or what if the tag line read, “Warning: potential academic genocide zone”? Whoa! Where did that come from? It came from Judge Howard Manning, describing the chronically poor performance of kids in Halifax County. But what if groups of our kids had similar levels of chronically poor performance? Wouldn’t we be guilty of academic genocide too?

If you think I’m out of line, think again. Both statements I’ve suggested as alternates for “Great Chapel Hill schools” could statistically come to pass one day.

This is yet another reason why the 2020 Vision for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools makes sense. By working to send every kid to college, we are not only closing the achievement gap and lowering the dropout rate to zero, we are safeguarding the value of our homes and the strength of our local economy.

Wouldn’t it improve our reputation if we took the pledge? Probably help those real estate values too. And what do you think your house would be worth after we succeeded?

Most people tell me our district will never commit to sending everyone to college. They say the majority won’t let it happen because they’re afraid that if more resources are given to the minority, their kids won’t make it to the Ivy League. So the argument against sending all of our kids to college is a resource issue. And the zero-sum reasoning of the majority makes it impossible to move forward.

But remember, folks, it’s not zero-sum. If you’re a homeowner, your sum goes up. But only if we continue to have “Great Chapel Hill schools.” If that reputation is ever tarnished, we all lose – financially, civically and possibly even legally if someone decides to take action on behalf of chronically under-achieving populations.

I want “Great Chapel Hill schools” forever, don’t you? But the only way to assure this is by working to send every kid to college. How much money do you think the tag line “Best school district in the nation!” would be worth? That’s probably what we’d be if we realized the 2020 Vision. Might even rate the cover of Time magazine or a visit from the president.

If you’re part of the majority, you may not think it is in your best interest to support 2020 Vision. But I assure you that it is. As we begin to implement the new Obama education plan, and move toward “college- and career-ready” standards, our tests will get harder. This won’t bother the majority kids. They’ll still pass. But other kids won’t. In fact, their scores could tank so low so fast – and stay down for so long – that someday “Great Chapel Hill schools” might not be on those real estate fliers anymore.

Steve Peha is founder and president of Carrboro-based Teaching That Makes Sense Inc.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme