School 19's Push for Improvement: A Look at Gentrification's Effects on Education

Abstract

Gentrification describes a process in which an urban neighborhood is reshaped into a more desirable one. More affluent people tend to move into the existing community. That act often raises rent prices and property values, which causes the displacement of poor people living in these established communities. A lesser researched area of gentrification is how it affects education. This article focuses on Dr. Charles T. Lunsford School No. 19, one of four elementary schools in the Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood. Children from the 19th Ward also attend this school since it sits on the border between the two neighborhoods. It also discusses how the change in PLEX has changed the school, from less parental and community involvement to the amount of money and attention it gets. The solutions to these problems are difficult to achieve, but by speaking to local activists and staff from School 19, it's clear that there are people with ideas and with the determination to make those ideas come to fruition.