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Shifting demographics
Posted By: Mike
Date: Monday, 21 January 2002, at 12:04 p.m.
I am concerned about the large shift in demographics in Fort Lee over the past several years. I am not against diversity, but the trend in Fort Lee towards more and more Asians (mostly Koreans) is somewhat alarming. The Asian stores are a well known fact here, and this will inevitably increase over time, causing similar tensions to what we have seen in Palisades Park.
Our schools perform below the Bergen County average for our "fg" socioeconomic grouping (see January Bergen News article) largely because of the Asian population I believe (English is not their first language, and this hurts test scores). Approximately 45% of the school system is Asian (again, mostly Korean). Of course, most of the honor roll students are also Asian, so it's not that there aren't very bright Asian students. Overall, though, it seems logical that non-English speakers will bring down the performance of the schools. Also, the town's education budget is undoubtedly being drained somewhat to teach basic language skills instead of funding other programs that would benefit all children.
Of course, this is a free country and anyone who can afford to live here should be able to. I do believe though that we will see a ghetto-ization of the town unless more balance is achieved. It seems like a snowball that is rolling downhill, feeding on itself. I don't believe there is anything to be done, but I'm sure I'm not alone in these concerns.
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