Pasadena need to do a better job of bragging on their accomplishments in the public schools. Many of the parents I speak with are very pleased with the elementary schools their children attend.

I still maintain hope that the public schools in Pasadena will improve. In fact, some of them are very good right now. The problems are complex, though, and just bringing higher-income families into the District is not going to cut it. The attitude that “a significant population is not pulling their weight” is unfounded and serves to maintain the great divide.

The problem Pasadena faces that the other cities you mention do not is that Pasadena has a large pool of lower income families. Good school districts, usually measured by standardized test scores, are the result of involved parents which usually correlates into having enough money to have one parent stay at home to raise the kids. For better or worse, Pasadena prides itself on economic diversity, unlike the other cities you mention. This means we have neighborhoods with cheap rentals, but also associated crime and gangs. Wealthy families don’t like to invest in school systems where they feel the a significant population is not pulling their weight. This has created a huge private school industry in Pasadena, and they are not going down without a fight. If Pasadena’s public school system were to improve, it would require significant parental resources that are not funding places like Waverly and Pasadena Poly. The social pressures alone will prevent those families from shifting their funding priorities.

So for better or worse, Pasadena has reached a comfortable resting place – a symbiosis between the very wealthy families who send their children to the many fine private schools and the structures that keep those private schools funded and thriving. Many forces have to move at once to break this structure – the public at large has to demand that the public schools get better despite the cost of carrying those who are not going to be able to fund their children’s education, and the private schools have to be seen as a lesser alternative. I don’t think either situation is likely to change.