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('�,niprcl7cnsi��c Nci��hbuwh�n,�f Stu�lic.: ('Laractrriiin� Dcclinc "dead zones", declining property values, high turnover rates in adjacent businesses, and higher sex crime rates. The research found that the destructive secondary effects are similar in every jurisdiction, despite size of city, variations in land use patterns, and other local conditions (ibid.). 3.5. Decline of Public Education Low educational attainment is considered to be an important indicator of areas of decline. Failure at school is often attributed to neighbourhood effects. These negative collective processes, including the abandonment of parental responsibilities on the part of modern parents and the high rates of juvenile delinquency, criminality and street violence, explain why so many of the young people in these areas lose interest in education (ibid.). The school performance problem in declining neighbourhoods is also an essential factor. Schools with high numbers of poor students are more likely to rate lower in achievement tests. Economic research linking education performance and later earnings indicates that even when poverty, family background and initial abilities are taken into account, being in a class with many other poor children has an additional effect. Such children's school performance is worse and their later earnings are lower (Glennerster et al. 1999). Families with resources move away in search of more solidly middle-class public schools or private schools; therefore the rising percentage of area's white children enrolled in private schools is another indicator of the trend towards neighbourhood decline. Low-quality public school education characterises neighbourhood decline as well. Inadequate public education makes the children and young adults of the distressed neighbourhoods unprepared to compete for skilled jobs, as fastest-growing, best-paying job sectors require a trained, highly educated workforce. Jonathan Kozol (1991) reports on the state of public education in poorer neighbourhoods in the United States. Shocked by the persistent segregation and bias, Kozol describes the garrison-like campuses located in high-crime areas, which often lack the most basic needs. Rooms with no heat, few supplies or texts, labs with no equipment or running water, sewer backups, fumes, and overwhelming fiscal shortages combine to create an appalling scene. Education scholar Jean Anyon (1997) argues that in the 20th century the decline of inner-city education and the decline of the inner city went hand in hand. Anyon studies the changes that occurred in the education system in Newark, New Jersey and links them to larger social processes in the life of the city (Table 4). The Centre on Urban and Metropolitan Policy (2000) indicates that a high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-cost school lunches is a strong sign of neighbourhood distress and identifies three reasons for this: • A Federal lunch subsidy is a more reliable measure of distress than the poverty level, because the poverty level is very low. A focus on only those families officially below the poveRy level ignores the other families earning slightly more who are subject to many of the same difficulties as .-. --�� 25