While improving our public schools should be a priority, I think we need to ditch the mentality that middle-class families are the saving grace of our inner cities. Instead, we should focus on more attainable goals such as making our cities welcoming places for other groups – gays and lesbians, childless couples, new immigrants, empty-nesters, young professionals. Cities, by their very nature, are in constant flux. The cycle of families moving to the suburbs will undoubtedly continue, but what’s important is making the city attractive for others to take their place. There are many types of people who prefer city living who don’t consider schools to be a priority.

People say, ‘Oh, the schools.’ Hey, with my house payment in the city of Cleveland, I will own the place outright before I have kids in middle school. What’s the cost of private school then?

I’m so tired of hearing about the schools. If there were still middle-class people in the cities, schools wouldn’t even be a consideration.

Now consider that, in Cleveland anyway, the outer-ring suburbs with the so-called “best schools” also carry big home price premiums over the city and the inner-ring. Basically the exact opposite of the “drive ‘til you qualify” phenomenon that is often cited as a reason people go to suburbs. If you have one or two kids, send them to private school, and live in the city or the inner-ring, you might not necessarily come out behind.