Robert L. Mitten: Urban issues not limited to school choice

Regarding Bartley Danielsen’s Oct. 6 Point of View “More school choice will ease social ills”: Danielsen reported on his research regarding the “Birth to five” (in his case, “Birth to 10”) negative cohort survival ratios that plague many urban school districts and communities.

I lived through that problem during the last 20 years of my working career as a business manager of an urban school district in Pennsylvania. We were very much aware of that phenomena and worked hard to eliminate the stereotypes. We were not a county school district, but we had a school for the performing arts that accepted students from the county on a tuition basis.

Many young couples that get married and move into low-cost housing in an urban environment find it difficult to afford larger quarters in that setting once a child arrives.

There are, also, many other issues that have very little to do with “school choice.” It is a very complex social problem that does not have one answer. I will have to respectfully disagree with his conclusions.

This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Robert L. Mitten: Urban issues not limited to school choice."