Charlie Olver 

Professor Hero 

Writing and Rhetoric 170

Sept 29, 2019

Westchester: The Gilded Icon

Whether in TV shows like Madmen or Big Mouth, Westchester, New York has been portrayed as an iconic wealthy suburbia for decades. Directly north of New York city, it is the metropolitan area where grossly wealthy people go to raise their children. From Hillary Clinton to Goldman Sachs Executives to Brad Pitt, Westchester has always been a safe suburban setting for the rich to retreat to. With the median age in Westchester being forty-five, most people are there to start families due to the fact that it is ranked as the safest county in New York . Growing up in a small town in Westchester, I always believed that three car garages, trust funds, and indoor pools were just the Westchester norm. Breaking out of my small town and forming relationships with people in other towns, I slowly realized it is not. Westchester, though majority liberal, is deeply segregated, both in wealth and race, causing discrepancies in education quality throughout the county. 

 In my graduating class of 126 people, only 5 were African American. The U.S Census Bureau declared that only 73% of the population in Westchester was white. Though comparatively that is very high to the rest of the nation, knowing my town and others, I knew Westchester’s demographics were not homogenous across the county.  A town I have often visited, Armonk, has a population that is 89.9% white (Statistical Atlas). A town often remarked as “sketchy” by many “Crotonites”, Peekskill, has a population of a mere 33.1% caucasian (Statistical Atlas). Looking deeper, non-white racial populations in Westchester pooled in only three pockets across the county, while the majority of towns  were generally comprised of more than 75% caucasion residents. (Statistical Atlas). When the county was forced to implement mandatory moderate-income housing, it decided to condense these projects into specific areas. In towns like Ossining, Peekskill, and Mount Vernon, where these housing projects exist, the populations never break more than 45% caucasion (Statistical Atlas). Humanity is indeed tribal, and people of certain racial and cultural ties tend to form like communities, but does this division in Westchester have negative impacts on the people that live there?

  Wealthy pooling is another interesting case in Westchester. Looking at the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data, Westchester does not make the top 10 most wealthy counties, but three towns from Westchester make the top 10 wealthiest towns in America (U.S Census Bureau). When looking at median incomes in Westchester by town, the correlation between race and wealth is apparent. The Median income for the county may be $86 thousand a year, but again, town by town statistics display a very different picture (U.S Census Bureau). Where the median income in Armonk is $207 thousand a year, Peekskill is $55 thousand a year  (Statistical Atlas). Just a thirty-minute drive from each other, Peekskill and Armonk have very different populations.

  The most prevalent case where these town to town discrepancies display negative effects is in education. It is easy to assume that the offspring of the rich and wealthy would all attend private schools, but most children in Westchester actually go to public schools. Westchester notably has the highest taxes in the nation, and the result is that most public schools in the county have more funding than many private schools across the nation, which is why most families pick Westchester to raise their children. This platinum suburbia has its “largest age pooling in the under 18 category and the 35-40 age range” because Westchester is designed as a commutable safe place with top schools where you can raise your children and then leave retire somewhere nice (Statistical Atlas). Yet, like racial and wealth pooling in the county, education town to town is not nearly equal. 

This becomes evident when comparing the quality of schools in those lower-income pockets to others around the county.  Niche yearly reports the top public schools in the Nation and in the 2018 rankings, districts like Scarsdale, Chappaqua, and Armonk made top 200, yet Ossining and Peeksill were not even on the list of 500 (Niche). Cross referencing with another ranking cite, Great Schools, when grading every public school’s quality out of ten, Scarsdale, Chappaqua, and Armonk all received tens, yet Ossining received a four and Peekskill and Mount Vernon both received ones (Great Schools). Looking for more scientific and reputable data, the correlation continues. The Scarsdale school district spends $33 thousand per student and has a total enrollment of 4,773 students (NYS Education Department ). The Ossining school district, though having a similar size of 4,953 students, only spends $25,486 per student (NYS Education Department ). With almost a ten thousand dollar difference, the difference in education quality is assumably severe. 

Reinforcing this cyclical wealth discrepancy, the quality of students education impacts their wealth and status long term. The graduating class at Horace Greeley High School, the Chappaqua high school, had 97% of its students going on the higher education (Chappaqua UFSD). When looking at the class of 2019’s anticipated matriculations for that upcoming fall, there was at least one student admitted to every single Ivy league university, and the other universities were a majority of the non-ivy top tier schools (Chappaqua UFSD). Looking at the same class’s anticipated matriculations for Ossining High School, only two universities listed were ivy’s and a majority of the schools listed were smaller and less highly ranked (Ossining UFSD). Though these higher education statistics may be explained not by education quality but the ability to pay for them, graduation rates also reflect discrepancies in education quality. Where the graduation rate at Horace Greeley was 99.9% last year, Ossining High School only had a graduation rate of 72% (Chappaqua UFSD; Ossining UFSD). 

  But how does this liberal population feel about this injustice? 

 In my town, progessive movements have always been strong. In Croton, almost all chain restaurants were banned, we no longer use plastic bags, and before every class in high school we had to state our preferred pronouns. I grew up going to assemblies on discrimination in elementary school and was force fed videos from the civil rights movement on MLK day. Yet, It is obvious that this skewed infrastructural system was not an accident. In Croton, local politicians denied the building of low-income housing multiple times due to fear of increased crime. Many towns have denied building homeless shelters for similar reasoning. When confronted with the idea of busing students from predominantly white to black schools, and vice versa, to diversify southern Westchestcher schools, parents from white neighborhoods became very vocal in opposition. Their argument being: if they are paying such high taxes, their children should not have to go to a lower quality school. Many also believed that “black” schools had more outbreaks of violence and they worried about bad influences on their children. 

Whether you attribute these differences in education to household wealth, race, or community values, the fact is: the Westchester fantasy is a reality for some and myth for others. Systemic or social, the differences in quality of life town to town are vast even though Westchester has always been noted as a highly progressive and liberal county.Whether in public schools, or census trends, it is obvious that we are looking at the symptoms of the common practices of racial and wealth discrimination. 

 

 

Work Cited 

“2019 New York Schools: Public, Charter, & Private School Ratings.” 2019 New York Schools | Public, Charter, & Private School Ratings, Great Schools , 1 Sept. 2019, www.greatschools.org/new-york/.

“Horace Greeley Home – Chappaqua Central School District.” District Home – Chappaqua Central School District, Chappaqua Union Free School District , 2 Sept. 2019,www.ccsd.ws/horace-greeley-home.

“Ossining UFSD.” Ossining Union Free School District, Ossining Union Free School District, 10 Sept. 2019, ossiningufsd.org/schools/ohs/.

“Race and Ethnicity in Westchester County, New York (County).” The Demographic Statistical Atlas of the United States – Statistical Atlas, U.S Census Bureau, 1 Sept. 2018, statisticalatlas.com/county/New-York/Westchester-County/Race-and-Ethnicity#top.

“School Districts in Westchester County.” Niche, Niche , 10 Sept. 2019, www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/c/westchester-county-ny/.

“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Westchester County, New York.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, U.S Department of Commerce , 1 July 2018, www.census.gov/quickfacts/westchestercountynewyork.

“WESTCHESTER COUNTY: NYSED Data Site.” Data.nysed.gov, New York State Education Department , 12 July 2019, data.nysed.gov/profile.php?county=66.