Gentrification Battles Among Parents at Public Schools

This weekend the Times ran a story focusing on the tensions that are evident at several public schools between the newer—and often wealthier parents—and the old-guard parents who sent their kids to the schools before the neighborhoods they’re in became trendier and more expensive. The schools mentioned in Brooklyn include P.S. 295, where there was a PTA skirmish over whether to raise prices on cupcakes at a monthly bake sale from 50 cents to $1; P.S. 11 in Clinton Hill, where there were arguments over how classy an affair the school’s annual auction should be; and at P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill, where some parents “are trying to emulate professional fund-raising outfits, by quietly reaching out to the splattering of bankers and small business owners for large donations, while largely bypassing those who have less. This, of course, has managed to offend people on both sides.” The stats in the article about how the growing wealth in the neighborhoods these schools are in are illuminating: For example, at P.S. 295, the median household income shot up to $60,184 in 2010 from $34,878 10 years earlier. At P.S. 11, in Clinton Hill, 67 percent of students now qualify for a free or reduced-fee lunch, as opposed to the 86 percent that qualified in 2005. This was the section of the article that really stood out:

Such fracases are increasingly common at schools like P.S. 295, where changing demographics can cause culture clashes. PTA leaders are often caught between trying to get as much as possible from parents of means without alienating lower-income families. Sometimes, the battles are over who should lead the PTA itself: many of the gentrifiers bring professional skills and different ideas of how to get things done, while those who improved the school enough to attract them become guardians of its traditions. So along with cross-cultural exchanges, international festivals and smorgasbords, school diversity can mean raw feelings about race and class bubbling to the surface.

Have any readers with kids in local public schools witnessed this phenomenon firsthand?
At the PTA, Clashes Over Cupcakes and Culture [NY Times]
Photo by NYC School Help