The suburban case studies in the 2024 book Disillusioned include one wealthier community trying to boost its status and avoid decline. Here is one way they tried to insure this in their local schools:

For the plan to work, the district would have to attract the right families into Lovejoy while keeping the wrong families out. Hoping to gauge the possibility of threading that needle, the Lovejoy board hired a demographic firm to run some analyses. First, they took aerial photographs of the district’s 17-square-mile attendance zone, counting the number of roofs versus available lots to ascertain likely development trends. Then, the firm analyzed census data and conducted interviews with local real estate agents, landowners, and developers to predict the household incomes and education levels of future residents. In their final report, the demographers projected that Lovejoy’s enrollment would by 8 or 9 percent a year for the next decade, enough to support a midsize high school. And just as important, they expected that the local poverty rate would remain extremely low, allowing the towns to maintain what local leaders liked to call “quality growth.” Elated, Lovejoy leaders began assuring prospective homeowners that their new high school would never look anything like its gargantuan counterpart in Allen. (202-203)

Growth is good in suburbs as it brings status and additional revenue.

But suburban communities often are looking for particular kinds of growth and certain residents. Here, “quality growth” means higher-income residents in larger new houses. The community does not want residents who are below the poverty line. And they then can run particular programs in their local schools aimed at high levels of academic performance, which will also boost their status. Good schools are not just about student learning; for numerous suburbanites, they serve as proxies for the overall quality of life.

Through planning and zoning, the suburb will have effectively decided who will live in the community and attend the local schools. They may pay for this down the road – the argument of the book is that the suburbs are a Ponzi scheme that pass along the costs to future residents who have fewer resources to meet the costs – but the short-term benefits look good for local leaders and residents.