Education Week - March 26, 2014 - 19

"THE YOUNG MAN OR WOMAN WHO GROWS
UP WITHOUT A DECENT EDUCATION, IN A
HOSTILE AND SQUALID ENVIRONMENT,
in ill health, or in the face of racial injustice-that young man
or woman is often trapped in a life of poverty."
PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON in a March 1964 speech to Congress
GETTING STARTED: President Lyndon B. Johnson gathers pens before
signing the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965.
peers who live in areas with greater concentrations
of poverty, even if those higher-poverty
schools receive higher levels of funding.
(See related story, Page 20.)
Some education policy advocates see
offering a choice of school alternatives-
charters, magnets, and public schools
outside a student's designated attendance
area-as a promising way to encourage
economic integration within cities.
Ms. Mills reviewed standardized-test
scores for schools in the District of Columbia,
compared policies on school uniforms
and discipline practices, and explored special
academic programs before deciding to
send her 16-year-old daughter, Janell, to
Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the
Georgetown neighborhood. There, Janell
puts in long hours working on costumes
and providing technical assistance for
school productions.
Ms. Mills' 8-year-old son Nathan at-
tends Chamberlain Elementary School, a
charter school with after-school learning
programs and social support for students.
Ms. Mills is determined to help her
children go to college, even though she
knows little about admissions or financial
aid. When her children tell her of careers
that interest them, she researches
them on the Bureau of Labor Statistics
website to see the average pay for workers
in that field.
"I tell them they've got to be allergic to
Cs," Ms. Mills said of her school-age children.
She also has two younger children:
20-month-old Emily and 11-month-old
Blake.
Researchers who explore the intersection
of education and housing say low-income
mothers like Ms. Mills are typically
less likely to choose alternatives to their
PAGE 21 >
Coverage of educational equity
and school reform for this series is
supported in part by a grant from the
HOPE Foundation and the Panasonic
Foundation. Education Week retains
sole editorial control over the content
of this coverage.
PLACE TO CALL HOME:
Above, Kourtney Mills peers
out from her kitchen to
check on her children, from
left to right, Emily Bakker,
Blake Bakker, and Nathan
Mills. Ms. Mills spent five
years on a waiting list for
a spot in Potomac Gardens,
a public housing complex
in Washington.
VIEW FROM OUTSIDE:
At left, residents walk
between buildings at
Potomac Gardens. Massive
public-housing complexes
like this one, which has
352 units, have fallen out
of favor among federal and
local housing agencies.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
SWIKAR PATEL/EDUCATION WEEK
View additional photographs
from this story.
www.edweek.org/blogs/fullframe
Kourtney Mills and her family
discuss life at Potomac Gardens.
www.edweek.org/go/housingvideo
A GLOSSARY OF FEDERAL
HOUSING INITIATIVES
Project-Based Vouchers
This program provides income-based leases for very
low-income families that are tied to specific housing
units. Under the program, a public housing authority
can designate a portion of its voucher assistance
to specific housing units, typically integrated into
neighborhoods alongside market-rate units. With
roots in the United States Housing Act of 1937, the
rules for project-based vouchers have been amended
several times since the creation of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development in 1965. The
vouchers remain a major component of rental
assistance.
Public Housing
Publicly owned, operated, and maintained rental
units for low-income families. The current rules for
the nation's public housing operations date back
to the launch of HUD in 1965. The federal agency's
budget includes operating and capital funds for the
maintenance of public housing units.
Housing Choice Voucher Program
This program, colloquially known as Section 8,
provides assistance for very low-income families
to buy or rent privately owned housing. In the case
of rentals, the vouchers pay the difference between
a fair rent, based on the tenant's income, and the
market rent charged by the building owner. Congress
created the outlines of the modern tenant-based
Section 8 program through the Housing and
Community Development Act of 1974.
HOPE VI
A program launched in 1993 that provided block
grants for local authorities and private developers to
rebuild severely distressed public housing projects
into dense, mixed-income neighborhoods that are
pedestrian-friendly and accessible to transit. The
EDUCATION WEEK | March 26, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 19
program led to the demolition of 100,000 "severely
distressed" units, according to HUD.
Choice Neighborhoods
An ongoing Obama administration demonstration
program that provides competitive grants to
transform areas of extreme poverty and public
housing facilities into mixed-use neighborhoods.
The grant emphasizes interagency cooperation
and local planning for educational improvements.
HUD awarded its first Choice Neighborhoods
grants in 2010.
Housing Development Action Grant
A 1980s program that provided one-time, upfront
funding to developers to help finance housing
construction in exchange for reduced rental costs
in some units. The program ran from 1983-1990.
Moving to Opportunity
For Fair Housing
A 10-year demonstration project that combined
tenant-based rental assistance with housing
counseling to help very low-income families move
from poverty-stricken urban areas to low-poverty
neighborhoods. The program provided vouchers to
participating families between 1994 and 1998.
Continuum of Care
A competitive grant program that provides funding
for housing and supportive services that encourage
self-sufficiency among homeless families. Programs
target people with mental illnesses, chronic health
conditions, or substance-abuse problems, and
families transitioning out of homelessness. The
program, which is still active, results from the 2009
consolidation of three competitive-grant programs.
Yoichi Okamoto/The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library-File
1965
http://www.edweek.org/blogs/fullframe http://www.edweek.org/go/housingvideo http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - March 26, 2014

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