<p>Several of the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio have excellent public schools. Bexley, Upper Arlington, Dublin all come to mind. Bexley has houses that range from super affordable to stratospheric in price and the school system is a real gem.</p>
<p>I agree that you get what you pay for. In Massachusetts, we have high-stakes testing (no pass, no HS diploma). Passing rates on the MCAS exams positively correlates with median family income and avg home price. Lawrence and Holyoke have hellish school systems, but hey, houses are cheap. Pay through the nose in Belmont, Wellesley, etc, and top schools came with the town.</p>
<p>Another “vote” for Chapel Hill, NC. Great, safe K-12 schools. Some areas of Raleigh, fewer areas in Durham for public K-12. I think Charlotte area has some good public schools too. Housing costs/taxes are reasonable compared to the Northeast US or nicer areas of CA, but more than other areas of NC. University system is outstanding. And …as an added bonus…also a great retirement area. Lots of 55+ and continuing care/life care options in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill research triangle area. </p>
<p>Wisconsin. Good, safe public schools in Milwaukee suburbs (North Shore - Nicolet HS, Mequon OK too.) and some Madison schools, too. Great University system (UW-Madison Excellent, UW Milwaukee OK) as well as very good system of Public Unis in smaller communities and reciprocal agreements with Minnesota schools. Housing costs are very reasonable in most of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>PA: Penn State and public regional Unis are good. Housing stock in good public school suburbs of Philly and Pitt are reasonable compared to other areas in the Northeast.</p>
<p>VT: Burlington Vt is one of the nicest “cities” in the US…and housing stock is relatively inexpensive. UVM may not be a top ranked college in most categories, but students seem to love it there.</p>
<p>I agree with the Michigan option. Not only are there quite a few very good public school districts with affordable housing, but you’re also in-state for the University of Michigan which has to be one of the best bargains around. And if UofM isn’t an option, there are a number of other good public universities.</p>
<p>I was thinking Michigan as well. That’s where we’re house hunting now. We’re looking at 1500-2000sqft homes in good neighborhoods with great public schools for 130k. Good enough for me!</p>
<p>Los Alamos, NM. Over 40% of the school aged population qualifies as gifted and most of the families have at least one parent with a PhD. Parents are very active in the local schools and demand high quality education for their children. School district is the top ranked in the state. The town’s only public high school provides over 1/3 of the NMFs for the entire state. </p>
<p>Additionally, the state of New Mexico offers all NM high school grads who finished with a 2.5 GPA or better 8 semesters of free tuition at any state university. (LANL employees get a special perk: because LANL is managed by the University of California, all children of LANL employees are eligible for in-state tuition rates at all California UCs.)</p>
<p>Housing higher than most other parts of NM due to limited availability, but lower than in the NE. Other COL expenses, particularly energy and taxes, are low. </p>
<p>Los Alamos has its own public ski runs on the edge of town. Season lift tickets are $90.</p>
<p>Los Alamos is 30-40 minutes from Santa Fe with all its amenities (World class Opera, Symphony, museums, art markets, restaurants, ski resorts.)</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll find what you are looking for in NJ. We have some very excellent public schools and a very high quality of life (especially in counties like Somerset and Hunterdon) but the cost of housing is quite high. And our property taxes and auto insurance are high enough to make a grown man/woman cry. </p>
<p>Good luck with your search.</p>
<p>“My vote is for Albany NY. Eight colleges in the area and excellent public schools, libraries, museums and parks. Property taxes of $3,000 typical for average house price of $160,000, with apartments starting at $800+ for a 2 bedroom. In-state option of attending 27 universities or colleges with tuition of $6,000 or less. Highly educated work force (whose children will your your children’s peers) and growing high tech presence from GE spin offs and RPI and UAlbany incubators. PM is you want more info about specific K-12 my children attended.”</p>
<p>I don’t think people in other parts of the country will think those property taxes are cheap. I live in a suburb of Albany, which has excellent schools, and pay $8K on a house assessed at $240K. </p>
<p>Also, imo, the Albany city schools are horrible. I wouldn’t recommend that district to anyone. </p>
<p>Yes, the economy here is quickly improving, there are lots of high paying jobs and a very educated population. I believe Albany/Schenectady/Troy ranks 8th on the list of cities with the highest percentage of PhD’s in the country. </p>
<p>It is also true that compared to NYC and it’s suburbs COA is relatively inexpensive here.</p>
<p>Several of the county districts in the Nashville TN area would serve your purpose. As long as you remember that “low cost home” is in the eye of the beholder. When we were moving here from the northeast, we thought almost everything was low cost compared to what we were used to. But to people moving here from TX, they thought the home prices were high. And when we had an influx of families from CA, they thought they’d won the lottery ;)</p>
<p>Same with taxes. My taxes are about 15% of what my SIL pays in NJ for almost exactly the same house. And they’re 2/3 of what we used to pay on the taxes for our much smaller home in a far less desirable school district.</p>
<p>With-regard-to low-cost, how about being able to live on $70K/year income there?</p>
<p>Other college towns that are very nice, have good schools, and are affordable:</p>
<p>-Ames, IA: [Best</a> Places to Live 2010 - Top 100: City details: Ames, IA - from MONEY Magazine](<a href=“http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2010/snapshots/PL1901855.html]Best”>Best Places to Live 2010 - Top 100: City details: Ames, IA - from MONEY Magazine)</p>
<p>-Lawrence, KS</p>
<p>The OP was looking for a public school district comparable to top private schools - there are combinations of crime, health care, taxes, public schools and costs that are attractive to many but I don’t think that you’d find public school districts comparable to top private schools anywhere that have a low cost of living and low crime rate.</p>
<p>The first one of the two cities I listed has a very good school district (as good as many privates in terms of where graduates attend, scores, etc) [Top</a> Iowa High Schools | Best High Schools | US News](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/iowa]Top”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/iowa). </p>
<p>College towns tend to have very good school districts for obvious reasons: many parents are college professors who value education and push for that. Chapell Hill, NC is another great one, btw. </p>
<p>Your ad hominem statement that you cannot find them anywhere is just a generalization.</p>
<p>BCEagle, the suggestion that I made fits all those categories.</p>
<p>[Munster</a>, Indiana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munster,_Indiana]Munster”>Munster, Indiana - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>It consistently ranks as one of the top schools in the state and taxes are cheap, the town has very low crime rate and houses are very affordable. It is the best undiscovered suburb of Chicago.</p>
<p>Check out the specialized high schools in NYC.</p>
<p>Are these schools comparable to the education that you’d get at Philips Exeter?</p>
<p>I’d say 99% of the private schools in the country aren’t comparable to Phiips Exeter, so that is setting the bar a litle too high. The title is Good, safe, cheap public schools and I think it is quite heartening that so many places are listed.</p>
<p>From the OP:</p>
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<p>^ Top 10? Top 100? top 1000?</p>
<p>Do not overlook expensive areas that have apartments (rent controlled) or rental homes. But I want to add this: At many of these excellent public (or private) school if your child isn’t in the top 5% of the student body and/or you are a renter (less desirable due to lack of influence) your child can be lost in the shuffle.</p>
<p>And before anyone jumps I know this to be true from personal experiences of several friends in different areas.</p>
<p>A school system and experience is what you make of it. And please remember that college admissions is a numbers game (in part): If your child is number 1 in a decent school he or she stands out more than a kid who is number 50 in a class at an excellent school.</p>