Piedmont has its own police force, tax base, and public school district. As a result, Piedmont students do not share resources or attend school with the low-income, Asian, African American, Native, or Latino kids just down the hill. White enclaves and suburbs like Piedmont exist throughout the country, as do schools that are attended mostly by working class whites like the San Leandro schools of twenty years ago. The majority of white kids go to predominantly white schools located in suburbs and small towns, while most children of color attend segregated urban or semi-urban schools. More than forty years after Brown v. Board of Education, precious few schools in this country are truly racially integrated.
Unequal funding lies at the root of many of the problems in public schooling.
Lack of materials and training, lack of staff, overcrowding, and crumbling buildings are all results of funding shortages. As long as school funding is linked to local property taxes, and is supplemented by parent donations, schools will continue to be separate and unequal. As a suburban school with relative wealth, San Leandro's Bancroft Middle School has, until recently, been able to keep class sizes small. This is now changing. Their building, intended for 750 students, now holds almost 900, with more to come next year.