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High income lets families choose best environment
07:30 AM CDT on Monday, June 27, 2005
Eddie and Lisa Lane are examples of black professionals' upward mobility
in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
But the young couple also represent some of the sacrifices the region's
relatively small but growing affluent black households make to ensure
that the next generation – their children – keep moving forward.
When the Lanes relocated to North Texas from Virginia four years ago,
their children's education largely dictated the family's lifestyle
choices.
To ensure they could afford private school tuition, the couple bought a
slightly scaled-down home in The Colony instead of splurging on a more
expensive home in Frisco or Plano. And Ms. Lane, 34, a career woman
turned stay-at-home mom, went back to work.
"We chose everything based on what we wanted to provide our kids in
education," Ms. Lane said. Three of the couple's four children this fall
will attend the predominantly black St. Philip's School and Community
Center in South Dallas.
The Lanes are among a growing number of affluent black households in
Dallas-Fort Worth and nationwide who are choosing private schools
because, they say, they lack confidence in large public schools'
collective ability to provide a quality education.
Additionally, many families say they prefer the religious and cultural
emphasis provided at some private schools.
Almost 67,000 North Texas students are enrolled in more than 220 private
schools, according to 2001 data from the National Center of Education
Statistics. About 5,400 of them are black.
According to the 2000 census, there were 950,000 black students enrolled
in private schools nationally. That's 9 percent of all students enrolled
in any school – private or public.
Tanya Watkins of Desoto said she never considered public school for her
children.
"I just didn't want them in a secular environment," she said. "I wanted
them in a Christian-based school."
Ms. Watkins, and her husband, Dallas attorney Craig Watkins, 37, also
wanted a school that was rich in black culture and would meet their
children's social and academic needs. They, too, decided to send their
two sons to St. Philip's.
"It's still a sacrifice, and tuition is a part of our family budget,"
said Ms. Watkins, 33, owner of Fidelity National Title Agency Inc., Fee
Office. "We made up our minds that that's the sacrifice we'll make."
"My money," she added, "needs to be spent on their future and educating
them."
Tuition at St. Philip's cost $5,500 for the 2004-05 year – about a third
of what some other prestigious parochial schools charge. There were 208
students enrolled at the school this year.
Terry Flowers, executive director and headmaster of St. Philip's, said
high-income families such as the Lanes and the Watkins, decide on the
school because they want "the whole package – education, spiritual,
emotional and physical."
"The families we have send their kids here because they want what's
here, and they can't find it at local schools," said Dr. Flowers, adding
that he means all the school's families, not just the wealthy ones.
The Dallas Morning News spent several months examining the
dynamics of affluent black households in the Dallas-Fort Worth
metropolitan region. The News analyzed U.S. census data from
1990 to 2000, comparing the growth in upper-income black households
locally and nationally. Reporters interviewed families,
demographers, economists and educators, as well as civic, business
and religious leaders about the status of black residents in the
region.
St. Philips' enrollment includes children from across the economic
spectrum. Dr. Flowers said some families can afford to pay tuition in
one lump sum while others receive scholarships. Sixty percent of the
school's students live outside South Dallas, he said.
Dr. Flowers said the rise in affluent black households is translating
into broader interest in private schools.
"Money gives more options," Dr. Flowers said. "It allows families to
select private schools or afford better things and new experiences."
Cedar Hill residents Tracey Thornton-Willis, 38, and her husband, George
Willis, 37, decided private school was the best option for their family.
The couple's two boys will attend St. Philip's, and their daughter will
attend North Dallas' prestigious Hockaday school in the fall.
Ms. Thornton-Willis, who grew up attending private schools, said she
never considered anything else for her children.
She likes the smaller class sizes, uniforms, discipline and enrichment
activities that private schools can offer. She also didn't want her
children to "be in the mix while public schools try to work it out."
Ms. Thornton-Willis, a former El Centro Community College instructor,
now teaches at St. Philip's. Her husband, a certified public accountant,
works there, too.
"The decision to send our kids came first, and then we began working
here," she said.
Like others, the family has had to make sacrifices to pay for their
children's educations, but they wouldn't have it any other way,
Ms.Thornton-Willis said.
They decided to live in Cedar Hill where they could "get more house for
less money," than in North Dallas. Plus, the couple grew up in Oak Cliff
and wanted to stay close to their roots.
Ms. Watkins said many of the families, regardless of wealth, who choose
private schools are able to do so because they've been exposed to the
option.
"The more you know, the more likely you are to make choices based on
what you know," she said. "It's all about exposure."
Ms. Watkins said her maternal great-grandparents attended college, as
did their siblings and their children and grandchildren.
She knew in the third grade that she was college-bound.
"The expectation was passed down," she said. "It's expectations like
those and education that builds wealth and that builds generational
wealth.
"I think that's just now happening in the black community, and I think
that's why more black people are considering sending their children to
private schools," she said.
Staff writer Herb Booth contributed to this report.
E-mail tstewart@dallasnews.com
