Community

[cats7494]

No, absolutely not.
The school district was the MOST important reason for purchasing our home.

 

[CEDmom]

In this case it doesn't. The area is Hoboken NJ. The high schools are from what I understand less than desirable. (If you can find me evidence of the contrary I'll be happy to send it on to her)
She's looking to sink a ton of cash into a home there (a really nice 2 bedroom apartment for something like $525,000)and her only reservation is the schools...
Mind you, her daugher is only 3 but still...

Here's a site your friend might be interested in http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_district/233/nj/ . You can't go by test scores alone but it gives you a starting point. I'd suggest she find some parents near where she wants to live and ask them about the schools. In most cases elementary schools are fine but it's when you get into the upper grades that there are problems. She could look into private school for later - most offer financial aid. If nothing else it might be a good investment while keeping sight on moving in a few years.

 

[ilovepcot]

Would never consider public schools so to me it's irrelevant.

 

[dcgrumpy]

Would never consider public schools so to me it's irrelevant.

why?


and like others have said, the school district has a lot to do with the value of your house

 

[aprincessmom]

It depends. I live in an area with a good public school system but because it was a really good system a few years ago lots of people moved in. Now we are having real problems maintaining a school system of that caliber with total class sizes that are 4-5 times larger than 10 years ago...meaning 10 years ago the entering kindergarten class had about 120 kids in it. Now the total class size for that group of kids is about 500. DD's class is the largest at over 600. We've built new schools and made additions but the reality is, 6 years after the builds and additions, we need to do it again and there really isn't any money to do it. Economy is tight, housing costs are high so property taxes are really stressing budgets and now we have to override substantially again to build what we need. And the school system suffers.

We don't have many options for private schools in the immediate area but there are a number that are less than 45 minutes away but they are expensive ($15K and higher). I am not willing to gamble with DD's education so I am looking into private options and will have to figure out how to afford it as the rest of the things I look for in a community (good commute, near urban areas, near recreational areas, good arts, restaurants, low crime rates, major airport, etc.) are here.

One of the reasons I moved to this area was because of the schools but it wasn't my primary reason. The reality is school districts can change so it shouldn't be the only criteria. And that's why it depends

 

[Lessa of Pern]

One of the reasons I chose to live where I do is because it's one of the top school districts on Long Island, so for me...that's a very iportant facotr in choosing a place to live.

 

[kasar]

When I was a young child, we lived in a city with a very bad reputation. The high school is huge and riddled with all kinds of urban problems including gangs. But it was still considered a suburb and it did have some really nice neighborhoods - not urban like Boston, but certainly not a leafy country-club suburb. My parents took us out of there before any of us reached high school but we stayed in touch with our old neighbors (quiet, dead-end street, all great families). One family had lived in that city forever and both of their kids went to the public high school (my parents would shudder at the thought LOL). They were great students and rose to the top of their classes (probably over 1,000 students in each class). They both went on to Ivy League colleges and law school and now they're much more successful than most of the people who wouldn't have dreamed of going to that school.

I guess my point is even though you hear about all the horrible statistics about bad schools, there will always be kids who succeed despite their surroundings. I know there are many, many kids who don't make it through these "bad" systems, but not every child is doomed to failure if they don't have a great school system.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Nope, school is number ONE priority. Nothing else would mean anything if the school system was bad.

The town I grew up in is a small town. All growing up, nobody had heard of it if I told them where I lived. We were in the "boonies". Well, I move to Plymouth, last summer, we had our house on the market to move back to my hometown, and Boston magazine came out with a rating of the schools in 43 cities and towns in Mass. My hometown ranked 14th!!!! Then because of the Boson Magazine article, a news shows called Chronicle did an expose on my town. You know the little town nobody heard of. Now everyone wants to live here. My realtor told me the magazine and news show just put about $10,000 onto any house we were looking to buy. UGH.

The schools in this town are GREAT. And it is one of the reasons I moved back.