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If you haven't read David Harrison's fine story on Hurt Park Elementary School from Sunday's paper, please do. It's a terrific story of a school community succeeding despite the currents running against it. It's based in part on demographic, enrollment and poverty data on Roanoke schools you can search in the DataSphere.

Hurt Park is in a number of ways emblematic of the trends in Roanoke that teachers and administrators are up against. The short-hand is the city school system is ever more "urban" each year. What that means is, the school system has increasing numbers of both minorities and children in poverty -- groups which historically have struggled academically. That's the oft-talked about "achievement gap." That trend is coupled with decreasing numbers of white and middle-class and affluent children, who tend to have greater academic success. And all this is happening in atmosphere of intense accountability for public schools, in which all students have to achieve, regardless of history and well-documented achievement gaps.

Look at Highland Park Elementary, for example. In 1990, about 31 percent of students were poor enough to be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs. Last year, that number hit 71 percent. Meanwhile, the total enrollment at the school has dropped by more than 50 percent.

But what do these demographic trends mean outside the school system? Demographers -- along with common sense -- tell you that, if our youngest residents are trending poor, that's what the adults in the city will look like in 15 or 20 years.

Even mentioning that out loud potentially exacerbates the "white flight" that's apparently going on, I know. But it's a statistical reality that matters. Increasing numbers of lower wage earners means less home-ownership, less liquid cash for city businesses, a diminishing tax base, and on and on.

The city is all about trying to reverse the trend. Witness the push for more new and higher-end housing in the city -- most especially on city-owned parcels, like at Colonial Green on Colonial Avenue or at Brambleton Avenue and Overland Drive. It's the same idea behind so far fruitless efforts to develop Countryside Golf Course. Then there's the push to revitalize the city's older core with projects like the Day Avenue renovation.

There seems to be a lot going on, but it is enough to turn the tide? Is housing the answer, or is the better chance for success in creating a school system that helps ensure that kids who are in poverty now don't grow up to become poor adults? Not that either is an easy -- or exclusive -- solution, mind you.