A Center City family chooses public school

Is momentum for public schools building in Philadelphia? Or will families largely continue to flee to the suburbs once their children reach school age?

This story by my colleague Kristen Graham about Jill and Mark Scott and son Henry offers hope that for the first time in decades, families will stay in the city and send their children to the local public school.

The Scotts could have afforded private school. They even won the lottery to get into Independence Charter, a school so popular that hundreds of families apply for a small number of seats there every year.

But they will send him to E.M. Stanton, their local public school. The Scotts say they were impressed by quality of the school and by the parents there who have rallied to paint and otherwise fix up Stanton.

I'm guessing that even a few years ago, a family like the Scotts would not have chosen their local school. Conventional wisdom was that it was too risky. But parents of young children seem more committed to staying and making their local school work than past generations. They seem more willing to at least try public school, rather than just assume it would never work.

Will it last? Will Philadelphia, like New York before it, suddently become a city where people develop confidence in at least some of their public schools?