clvlndr

Good points, but Cleveland's not unique in this area (sadly). Our haves/haves-not country doesn't place the emphasis on educating all its young (just like it tells working class folks to fend for themselves for health care) anywhere near the way it should – as in, the way practically every industrialized nation in the world does!!!! Unfortunately our infrastructure in human beings – and not buildings, bridges, etc. -- suffers greatly because of this. The after effects? try drugs. crime. social stratification. fear. guns. and killing. We didn't need Michael Moore's excellent flick "Bowling for Columbine" to tell us that even though, per capita, or Canadian neighbors have a much higher gun ownership per capita, we have a much higher rate of murder -- we're off the charts. And the root of this is that we look at those who have lesser than us as our enemy who we must protect ourselves from rather than reaching out to them and realizing that, as goes the least of us, so goes the rest of us… And the fact that we educate kids based on how much $$ their parents have has mushroomed into all sorts of social ills -- off of soap box, cause I could go off on this for hours if you had some good jazz and a few cups of coffee... I lived in Philly for years and just visited Chicago -- both towns with schools that suck, but neither of them are hemorrhaging population like we are (central-city Chicago actually even grew slightly in the 2000 census). Hell, the rich parents (among the dominant young singles) in Chicago's Lincoln Park and River North areas (just to name a few) aren't sending their kids to Chicago Public Schools any more than Warehouse District or Ohio City middle/upper middle class residents are sending theirs to Cleve public schools... So while our crappy schools certainly aren't helping our situation, I think it's a bit simplistic to think the schools are the sole or even main cause to our flight of middle class/young professionals. … (and I'm not saying you are so this isn't my taking a shot at you)... It's worthy of discussion, though. I tend to think jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs are the thing our city needs to lure to keep people here moreso than better schools, although I am quick to recognize there’s a tie between the 2.