Cities, Suburbs, and Schools: An historical case study of metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut

Jack Dougherty

Educational historians have studied how city school systems, the former crown jewels of American education, declined during the twentieth century. But we have not posed the corollary question: how did the small towns and villages outside of central cities give rise to the nation’s premier suburban school districts of today? By drawing upon rich historical source materials for metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut, a classic example of city-suburban transformation in the Northeastern United States, this study examines how schooling emerged as an important push-pull factor in post-1945 suburban migration, and asks whether the political and geographical analysis from the “new urban sociology” explains why it happened. Stage one of the research asks a descriptive question: exactly how and when schools became such a crucial factor in Hartford’s suburban migration? Prior to the 1960s, most schools in these formerly rural village districts could not match the offerings of the prestigious city schools, but soon thereafter, residents fled their urban schools to build (and defend) better ones in the suburbs. Constructing this historical context, through longitudinal census data and public discourse about school quality in newspapers and school board minutes, will tell us more about how “white flight” happened. Stage two poses a causal question, drawn from the new urban sociology literature: did the fortunes of suburban towns rise or fall due to political efforts to boost public schools as “growth machines” for economic development? This analysis will compare public and private policy decisions on schooling for selected suburban towns and their influence on population, wealth, and prestige.

About Jack Dougherty

Jack Dougherty is Assistant Professor and Director of the Educational Studies Program at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He teaches courses in the history and policy of urban education and actively participates in Trinity’s urban engagement agenda. Jack received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Swarthmore College, taught high school social studies for several years in Newark, New Jersey, then earned his doctorate in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to recent publications in the Journal of American History, History of Education Quarterly, and Educational Researcher, he is completing a book manuscript under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, titled More Than One Struggle: Black School Reform in Milwaukee and the Urban North.