If policy (1) ties school quality to the neighborhood in which a kid lives, and (2) makes it tough to build cheaper high-density housing near the best schools, then lots of lower-income kids will find it tough to attend good schools. /1

Put another way, such policy denies a lot of children access to valuable social capital, in the form of both opportunity-promoting institutions and opportunity-promoting relationships with people who live near those institutions. /2

The new policy-oriented phase of @SenMikeLee 's Social Capital Project within @JECRepublicans is focused on expanding opportunity through social capital investment. Access to valuable social capital is inextricably bound up in place and exclusionary place-based policy. /3

Our latest report, by @vanessabcalder , "Zoned Out," highlights these relationships. /4 https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/republicans/analysis?ID=E4DD88F7-4D98-4FD4-B68A-20689CB4F94C

She shows what sorts of home prices families face if they want their kids to attend better or worse schools. Here's what that looks like nationally. /5

Then she looks at 4 cities as case studies, each of which varies in terms of its residential zoning & school attendance policies. For instance, Chicago has moderately restrictive residential zoning & open enrollment, leveling the relationship btwn school quality & home prices. /6

Portland, OR has restrictive zoning and residentially assigned schools. The zoning makes housing expensive at all levels of school quality, and the school assignment makes access better schools less affordable. /7

San Francisco has open enrollment, so the relationship between school quality and home prices is weak, but because of its zoning, access to even the worst schools is limited by affordability. /8

And Houston's lack of restrictive zoning makes living near even the best schools affordable, though affordability does vary across its residentially-assigned schools. /9

Bottom line, if you care whether poor kids have access to good schools and to the high-value social capital that tends to cluster around such schools, you should care about local zoning AND local school attendance policy. /10

Check out Vanessa's report, and stay tuned for info about our next reports. More are on the way soon! /fin