<p>Yes, this is an age old question, but I’d like to hear the comments on it both sides of the aisle and especially how it relates to my situation.</p>
<p>I currently live in a poor town outside of Seattle…I’ve heard mixed reviews on our school district. By stats, 29% of students enrolled in a 4 year college after completing high school, and about 30% of the students are on a free or reduced lunch program. For the non-number people, we can call this the “poor district”</p>
<p>I’m renting now so it’d be easy for me to move to a more wealthy, higher income school district. For example, not too far away there is a high school that has 2% of students on a free or reduced lunch program and 80% enrolled in a 4 year college program after high school. We can call this the “great district”.</p>
<p>Or I could move to a district in between, say with 11% on free or reduced lunch and 60% going on to a 4 year college program. We can call this the “medium district.”</p>
<p>So my question is…what are the comments about choosing to live in one district over another. The downside to the higher income district is, well, it’s more expensive to live there because of the cost of housing. I can financially afford it, but could save more if we lived in a lower rent part of town such as the one that I’m in now.</p>
<p>Oh year, anticipating the comment that a six month old isn’t even enrolled in school, I’m just thinking ahead. It takes my wife and I forever to find a house, and our landlord might sell the house at any time, so I’d like to have some ideas about where we might want to live. There are many factors behind school district, but that is one of them.</p>
<p>IMHO, this is the single most important thing you should pay attention to when you decide where to live. In our even-greater district, 97% of the kids go on to college – and we’re not talking Podunk Community College. We sacrificed a lot to live in the town we live in, but it was worth it for what it did for our kids. </p>
<p>Of course, now that we’re empty nesters, we’ll be moving on to a town with a less-great school district, and at this time of our lives, that’s just fine.</p>
<p>We work at home; 10 years ago, with kids finishing 1st and 4th grades, we researched school districts because we wanted a more academically challenging public schools system for the kids. We narrowed it down to 2 areas in totally different states, then decided on 1 because of climate. Went and visited, selected one town for the school district (with crazy high school taxes) and moved.</p>
<p>The differences for the kids was immediately noticeable in their dinner-time table talk. They were animated and upbeat, as opposed to… comatose.</p>
<p>Our only regret was that we hadn’t moved earlier.</p>
<p>Our younger daughter will be entering college in the fall, and we’re looking to get out of here (away from the high school taxes) as soon as possible - just like VeryHappy.</p>
<p>I think the overall district is less important than the particular school, though I will say that first district you describe seems sketchy. In my mind, 30% free and reduced lunch isn’t that much, but for less than a third of the kids to move on to a four-year school? That’s awfully low.</p>
<p>Either of the other two districts you describe seem fine, as long as you move into a neighborhood where the individual schools are excellent.</p>
<p>My distict is urban, more than 60% low SES, but we bought in a neighborhood with an excellent elementary and fine middle and high schools. However, as the kids got older we opted for the excellent, competitive magnet schools the district offers. Have been very happy and we wonder why anyone would opt for a private school knowing the amazing, “free” public education available.</p>
<p>(I tried to edit my post but took too long, so here’s the additional comments)</p>
<p>when looking for where to move, we looked at: how many AP courses were offered, how many kids went to 4-year colleges, tax dollars spent per pupil, average SAT scores, and how they handled G&T (gifted and talented). Along the way we realized that the better school systems were located near universities/colleges (ie, the faculty value education and choose to live in towns that support the schools)</p>
<p>What I would do if I were doing it again:
move earlier; the writing was on the wall when my older daughter was in kindergarten (ie, there were indications that we were not going to be happy with the school system)</p>
<ul>
<li><p>when we moved, we should have picked a house within easy easy walking distance of the high school. I totally underestimated the importance of this, even though several people whose opinion I should have trusted told me… We had no idea our involved our kids would be with extra activities, and by the time they hit HS we were really really tired of driving them back and forth.</p></li>
<li><p>we were sure our kids would not be involved with sports and didn’t research that at all; both girls became active in sports. The chosen town turned to have great variety, but the lesson learned was that there was no way to know what my 10 year old would want as a 16 year old</p></li>
<li><p>evaluate the town’s dedication to the music program; research has proven over and over that students who participate in music do better in school, especially in math.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I completely agree with Veryhappy and mtpaper. We purchased a home in the best school district we could afford and yes the taxes were high. Three of my four kids only attended the district school through middle school and than continued on at Magnet highschools. However, my daughter attended the local school and her experiences were terrific. I think it is very important to choose the neighborhoods in the best district that you could afford because these are the children that your children will attend school and play with. Later on they are also the kids that your kids will date. If education is important to you than it is important to be around other people who view it the same way. Now that we are empty nesters the high taxes are less appealing to us but the values of the town we live in would be hard to give up. We enjoy living among other people who view education as an important factor in their lives.</p>
<p>Another point of view. I feel like a slacker mom as I did not really research the schools extensively when we moved (D was in first grade, S was 2). I knew that the schools were good, but not the top here (in Nothern Va). That said, I have not been disappointed. Both of mine got a good education at the local ES and MS. And I might add the local ES was a very upper middle class school when we moved here, a few years later due to a boundary change the school became one of the poorest in our area. And it was actually a better school after that.</p>
<p>D attended the local HS. Decent but not “top” school. She got a great education there, is attending a very selective college of her choice and was well prepared. Students from that school do very well in college admissions. I do not think that attending a different HS would have been any better for her.(S attends a public magnet school so he is in a different situation).</p>
<p>So I would say that whle it might be nice to attend a top school, it is not imperative.</p>
<p>I moved my family of 5 kiddos, not just to another district or town or state but to the other side of the country.</p>
<p>As a single mom with 5 students looking to be in high school one after another it was very important to us. So we moved from CA to NC.</p>
<p>At first the culture shock was significant, but it passed and now we are allvery glad we made the move.</p>
<p>Especially when looking at undergrad and grad school tuition, combined with the outstanding schools and incredibly low property taxes, taxes in general. Cost of living is so much lower than CA, housing in particular, and yet great, great schools. We are an hour and half from the beach and 2 hours from the mountains, some of the prettiest in the US.</p>
<p>Son is starting med school in a few months and his instate (top 20) option’s tuition for all 4 years is less than 1 year for his undergrad OOS private. Unbelievable. Other in state option is even less. Again unbelievable.</p>
<p>Daughter’s vet school same thing. </p>
<p>Mine all went to public hs here, and did well for undergrad. </p>
<p>The only caveat I’ll throw into this conversation: make sure you don’t overextend yourself financially by buying into a better school district. In 18 years you’ll be paying for college. There are many six-figure earners who post here on CC that they can’t afford to send their kids to the selective college their kid got into. They are surprised that they don’t get financial aid - they have high earnings but also hefty mortgage payments.</p>
<p>In a word: very. Not only in terms of the educational offerings, but in terms of being surrounded by families and peers that also value education and have high expectations. Sometimes people choose to live in a cheaper town with bad schools and plan to send their kids to private school, but you have to be really certain that you are going to be able to afford it.</p>
<p>The stat I’d be looking at first is % of students going on to 4-year colleges. Which colleges is also important, and can be gleaned from the school profile website in most cases, but do be aware that districts report this differently, and some can be misleading. Our HS, for example, only lists schools that last year’s seniors are actually attending. A neighboring district lists every school that kids went to for the last 4 years (“graduates are currently attending”). That enables them to list more top schools, and makes them look much better, but they are not. </p>
<p>Also take into consideration the availability of AP and IB programs, music programs, and in some places magnet schools. Be aware that a lot can change in 12 years, but very established districts tend to stay that way.</p>
<p>Good Points all but a few things to keep in mind—</p>
<p>In school districts where 90+% of kids go to college - those same kids transplanted into lesser districts would still get to college.
School districts can change greatly in 10-15 years. A suburban district today with a two wage earner demographic today may not be the same in a few years. I have seen this happen over and over.
I have also seen decent schools become really good schools over time.
There are some pretty good schools with kids on free/reduced lunch. </p>
<p>I would seriously consider afforability - if you go overboard now not only in a mortgage but taxes - the taxes only will get higher. Consider what you are giving up in terms of lifestyle for your family.</p>
<p>There are many more options out there today in terms of education - charter schools and online charter schools did not exist when my kids were small. </p>
<p>Look for community involvement and leadership within the school district. Talk to parents and teachers - the climate now is suffering so if they are realtively happy now, that’s a good sign.
After you buy a home - become involved and be an advocate for your child (and other children in your community). Attend school board meetings - yes, before your kids get into school. Volunteer to serve on committees and once your kids are in school get to know the teachers and principle on a first name basis - through your involvement.</p>
<p>I think I know which area you’re mentioning. </p>
<p>One good thing about living in the Seattle area is that state law allows children to attend any public school in the state for free with a variance. The only time this doesn’t work is when the school is declared overcrowded and is closed to out of district variances. My “home” high school is very much like the “poor” district you mentioned, but I was able to attend the district’s other high school (which has the higher stats you mentioned) on a variance and greatly benefited from doing so.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that school districts often cross city and county lines. In my school district, in-district students come from 2-3 different cities and unincorporated county land. The same city is often split between two different districts.</p>
<p>Not to be overly dramatic, but it may be the most important decision in your child’s life. His or her future success (academic, social, emotional, and financial) will be determined in their formative years of elementary through high school. Set the bar high and they will reach it. Even if you kid is not the smartest, the rising tide lifts all boats. Choose the best school district you can afford.</p>
<p>I’m going to argue the other side here, just for balance. The above is blatantly untrue. We live in a town with what most on CC would consider barely adequate schools. Enough lower income families that our HS is now a Title 1 school. However, every year, the school sends kids to Ivies and other good schools. If your kid has the ability, then he/she doesn’t need the school system to turn him/her into someone “Ivy-worthy.”</p>
<p>Not that there’s anything wrong with a strong beginning. However, many parents here who live in the great/expensive school district and/or send their kids to private schools then can’t stretch to pay for that Ivy.</p>
<p>We were able to pay for the top ten LAC and Ivy are kids attended, because we werent paying for the expensive town.</p>
<p>If you know you’ll be able to do both should you want to, then more power to you.</p>
<p>We felt our kids’ educations K-12 mostly came from home, anyway. They more than held their own in college against the students from the fancy towns/schools.</p>
<p>@@ Yes, that’s right. Because Ivies (you certainly just mean “elite schools,” right? because it’s odd to call out Ivies specifically when thinking about an excellent education) just want to recruit from the wealthiest suburbs of major cities, which is where you’ll find the best high schools. They have zero interest in looking anywhere else, which is why they pay little attention to students from elsewhere and never put any effort to gin up applications from other areas.</p>
<p>Complete and utter nonsense. It’s important to have a good school district because it’s important in and of itself for your kid’s educational foundation - not because elite schools only care about admitting kids from those districts. I assure you there are plenty of kids from “regular” decent-but-not outstanding school districts at all the top schools. It’s a grand mix.</p>
<p>To pile on … very important. Mom3ToGo and I picked the town in which to raise our kids with schools as the #1 criteria … with a pretty specific idea of what good schools would be … #1 excellent public schools so we could commit to public education for their K-12 education … and also looking for economic and ethnic diversity in the town. To find all 3 attributes in schools we needed to find a suburb very close to Boston … our schools are highly rated but not at the very top … the highest rated schools tended to be in burbs farther from town which had much more homogenious student populations. We’ve had two kids go through HS and while the school sytem is far from perfect we are VERY happy we made the choice we did 20 years ago about the town in which we wanted to raise and educate our children.</p>
<p>That is actually probably only a little below national average. Of people age 25 to 29 in the US in 2010, about 31.7% had bachelor’s or post-bachelor’s degrees. An additional 9.5% had associate’s degrees, and 20.1% had “some college” (which covers everything from dropped/flunked out to taking a personal interest course at a community college).</p>
<p>Perhaps more important is to look at the curriculum. For example, do the high schools offer the “important” APs (e.g. English, Calculus), and how well do students do on the AP tests? Is there enough interest in the AP and other desired courses that they are not in danger of being cut due to school budget problems? Is the high school friendly to students who wish to take community college courses after exhausting the offerings at the high school? Do all of the elementary and middle schools provide adequate preparation for high school?</p>
<p>Also which schools do the students head off to after graduation from high school (if most four year university bound students are going to UW Seattle, that may indicate higher aspirations than if they went to WWU, EWU, etc.)? Are the community college bound students smart but poor students looking to transfer to UW (good), students going with the purpose of learning vocational skills (still good, although it may not be what your kid wants if you are asking here), or aimless students who go there because they do not know what else to do (not so good, although some such students figure out what they want to do there and then find an educational and career path, which is good)?</p>