Friday Churn: Zoning the culprit?

What’s churning:

A new Brookings Institution study, which examined test scores and housing prices, finds that housing costs are an average of 2.4 times more — nearly $11,000 more a year — near a high-scoring public school than near a low-scoring one.

The report advocates, “As the nation grapples with the growing gap between rich and poor and an economy increasingly reliant on formal education, public policies should address housing market regulations that prohibit all but the very affluent from enrolling their children in high-scoring public schools in order to promote individual social mobility and broader economic security.”

Statistics on the Denver metro area found it to be:

  • 35th out of 100 metro areas in the restrictiveness of zoning
  • 15th in economic segregation
  • 53rd in its housing cost gap
  • 13th in the test score gap between middle and high-income students and lower income students

(See metro Denver results.)

Here are the results for the Colorado Springs metro area:

  • Also 35th in zoning restrictions
  • 59th in economic segregation
  • 33rd in housing cost gap
  • 67th in test score gap

(See Colorado Springs results.)

You can read coverage here from our partners at EdWeek. The Brookings Institute website has links to all the details of the study.

What’s on tap:

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and student leaders from the University of Colorado Denver today will call on Congress to block scheduled interest rate increases for the subsidized Stafford loan program. Rates are scheduled to double to 6.8 percent on July 1 unless Congress stops the hike.

Bennet will attend an 11:30 a.m. UCD student government meeting and talk to students about how the increase would affect them. The senator’s office estimates more than 166,000 Colorado college students hold Stafford loans.

The event will be held in the student senate chambers on the third floor of the Tivoli Student Center on the Auraria campus.

CU-Boulder officials are trying to snuff out the annual April 20 marijuana smoke-in by closing the campus to people who aren’t students, faculty or staff, closing off Norlin Quad lawn areas to everyone and flooding the zone on campus and nearby. University officials warn tickets will be issued for both trespassing and marijuana possession.

Early Thursday evening a Boulder judge rejected a last-minute legal challenge to the campus closure that had been brought by marijuana advocates.

Get the details on CU’s plans here. Check with our partners at 9News throughout the day for updates on the festivities.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.