<p>Your area is very much like ours. We don’t live in a typical rural town. It is like your town in some ways (though no ocean!) as it is a resort area. There are many expensive vacation homes. There is also a trailer park and a subsidized housing apartment complex, and many very small homes and farms and so on. Some parents are professionals and some are laborers, farmers, or blue collar workers, all in the same town. Our community values education very much so, even though there are kids who will not go to college. The community always tends to support the school budgets. Parents are very involved in the schools too. </p>
<p>I agree that this is very different than suburbia where each town is more homogeneous within the community in terms of socio-economic status. Here, a rich family and a poor family may send their kids to the same school.</p>
<p>Excellent question. We bought cheap seats in the best school district we could afford. We have an apartment – not a house. That’s right – no yard, no green space. All for the sake of the kids education.</p>
<p>Having just gone through the college admissions process, I can’t honestly say that our choice paid off. We gave up so much to live where we do – housing is expensive, taxes are obscene, and the parents are really homogeneous. And yes, in the end, D got into a good school, but at what cost? Would she have done just as well if we’d lived where we wanted, in a more diverse community, and paid for private school for years 9-12? I don’t know. </p>
<p>I think it really depends on your kids (some thrive in a good public school; some need private school; some will do just as well in a lesser public school) and the parents (how much time do you have to stimulate them?) </p>
<p>Also – the ‘great school district’ reputation may be something that was formed years ago before the school population tripled and the school budget was cut a dozen times. I feel like our “excellent” school district is coasting on a reputation that’s 20 years old.</p>
<p>Yes, I remember seeing that article when it first came out, it describes the situation very well. I never felt we were leaving due to racial issues, most of my daughters friends were asian and Indian (how could they not be, since the schools were 75% asian). They would have gone to Lynbrook high.</p>
<p>We left because I didn’t like the attitudes of the parents. These kids spent the majority of their free time either studying at home, or in learning centers like Kumon. The neighbors on both sides of us had kids the same age as our kids. We NEVER saw these kids outside. We lived there for 8 years, you’d never know they even had kids. Our kids were out there riding their bikes, and doing other normal kid stuff. Their kids were at Chinese school, piano lessons, and Kumon. No time to just be kids.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that seems to happen a lot. My son’s public school was rated #1 in the county and had won a lot of awards. But, honestly, I wasn’t the least bit impressed with the academic program nor their attitude. I went around to every private school in our county and several of the public ones and did my own evaluation (even had a spreadsheet). The differences just in the private schools was tremendous, the public schools were just as bad. A child learning 3rd math at school A had a totally different experience as a child at school B. No consistency in curriculum within the same school district. It’s very important to figure out what your own criteria is - class size, structure, how they handle talented kids, etc and then go to several schools to see how they measure up. You learn a lot by visiting different schools in your area. I was amazed at the inconsistencies and finally pulled son out of the public school system and settled on a private school where he thrived for 11 years.</p>
<p>Last Sunday’s paper actually had an ad for a new housing development in our area…“The College Plan…”. I though maybe they were giving away a years tuition with the purchase of the house…but no, they then went on to quote the stats for the top 10 CA school district that these home were in.
Who cares about a granite kitchen, when you can be assured your child will go to college! Suffice it to say, I am glad I live in the boundaries of this excellent school district.</p>
<p>“You sometimes sacrifice socio-economic diversity to get the “better” school, and this is a shame (imo). But you don’t always have to make this trade-off.”</p>
<p>This is the big issue for me. I went to a private prep school. Academics were mostly pretty good, with some stellar teachers, and excellent resources. But also a lot of poisonous focus on blowout bat mitzvahs at the Ritz, stock portfolios, condos in Vail, plastic surgery, tans, yada yada. Never mind that this was the progressive, holistic school among the prep schools, and never mind that we’re talking about Chicago, which is totally amateur compared to NYC, Miami, or SoCal in the conspicuous consumption department. It comes with the territory. When you’re in the richest neighborhoods/school communities, you’ll see that kind of crap.</p>
<p>Bottom line, don’t confuse money with academic values. Yes, 100% of the kids in the rich school/district will go to college, but that doesn’t make them intellectuals. Some of the families stretch their budgets for the Snobville district because Snobville High offers superb academics; lots of others are doing the same because it’s prestigious to live there and they don’t want to be associated with the riffraff. It might actually be the case that the next town over, where 80% go to college, there’s a better community of thoughtful kids.</p>