Neighborhoods on the Near North Side including Oldtown, Lincoln Park, Uptown, and the South Loop are generally upscale. Homes are expensive, taxes are high, and public housing is at a minimum. These circumstances allow the school districts to focus their funding on strictly educational demands as opposed to counterattack potential violence or other problems that surround other neighborhoods.
There are many characteristics of the schools in these areas that differentiate them from surrounding neighborhoods. Public and private schools in the area are extremely diverse both socio-economically and religiously. With such an enriched society, school districts can take the funding they receive and direct it towards any aspect of their curriculum or programs that may need help financially.
The Lincoln Park neighborhood demonstrates how the resources that a neighborhood offers can positively affect the students as a result. DePaul University is located one block north of Oscar Meyer Grammar School. The campus security guards that surround the University subsequently protect the students at this grammar school. This is a completely different environment then the students in high-risk areas attend school in. Students in those high-risk areas don’t have these security guards at their luxury, and therefore, are responsible for their own safety as they go to and from school every day.
With greater funding, a magnitude of resources, and a safer community, students in the near north side of Chicago are in an environment breed for success.