It is not just schools but the community that you raise your kids in that make home ownership so important to people. Our town had good schools, but also a great library, scouts programs, churches, community lake, recreation programs, etc. These were all important to me when choosing to own a home to raise my family.
However, once the kids are grown, or before you are married and considering having a family, renting my make more sense to people. Those are times when you are also more likely to want to move around (relocating for jobs etc.) and having a home may make that more expensive (costs of selling and buying a home).