Young family looking to move closer to my job, any suggestions for my situation?

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by Jenkems

Wife has a friend who lives here, one of the towns we’ve looked at a little bit. Don’t really know much about the area tbh

Will be tough in that price range. You can find houses in that price range but will probably be in Downers South schools instead of North, that's not a huge deal just pointing it out, other issue will be Downers is a bit pricier so it will be small like 1000 to maybe 1200 square feet tops. A buddy of mine moved to downers, great area he has a nice house but only way he could afford it was a small two bedroom house which suits his needs but maybe not with kids.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by fusillirob1983

How good of schools are you looking for and what are you looking for in terms of your house?


You may find something in Westmont. For that price in Downers Grove you'd probably get something really small or needs a ton of work, or both.


Someone can correct me, but I think Willow Springs feeds into two school districts. Part goes with the Lyons schools and feeds into Cook County District 204 for high school (west of Canal/Des Plaines River). I think the other part may go with Bridgeview and feeds into Argo for high school. You'd probably want to be careful about that if looking in Willow Springs as the Lyons side is a better district, but in all likelihood doesn't meet the price point.


Willow Springs is a bit isolated from other towns as a majority of it is surrounded by forest preserves and the I&M Canal.


Lombard might also be a decent place to look. Good elementary schools but the high schools aren't comparable to Naperville district 204.

Everyone holds up Naperville as being a must have for schools. As someone who went to those schools they were nice but Naperville and areas like it have their own issues ie keeping up with the joneses, drugs, etc. Personally I would almost have preferred to go to a more middle of the road but still good school.

I think almost any school in the west burbs ie Lisle, Villa Park, Downers, Westmont, Woodridge etc your going to attend a safe school and have a decent education. I doubt someoen's life is going to be that much better for having gone to Neuqua or Central as opposed to another school

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by damba

Perhaps your kids are all grown up now, but common ‘wants’ in the suburbs of late are state of the art STEM labs, up to date performance spaces and athletic facilities. Special education programs have also been a draw of many parents not satisfied with what they have been receiving elsewhere.

And those goodies come courtesy of an unconstitutional property tax funded educational system which allows wealthy communities to stock their schools with fancy amenities. These communities also benefit from overall lower tax rates compared to poorer ones, which allows them to spend proportionally more on schools. That encourages segregation by allowing wealthy communities to compete for the "best and brightest" by one upping each other with the latest bling bling, while poorer districts have to get by on half, or sometimes even a third, the amount per pupil - pupils who often have special needs, which are difficult and expensive to address.

I also think that these types of reasons for choosing a higher income school district are a subterfuge. Sure, it sounds good, and maybe the parents citing to these "wants" believe it themselves. But deep down, affluent and even middle class parents do not want their kids going to school with poor kids, particularly poor minority kids. It is what it is and I wish people would just admit it already. I find this so hypocritical in a region which is so liberal and, outwardly anyway, for the common people.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by BRU67

I think the term "downgrade" is relative. We need to start getting more affluent families into the higher poverty districts, especially in a Chicagoland area which is generally liberal. Inherent in our rampant segregation is hypocrisy. Don't liberals always say that diversity is enriching? So...

Personally I don't have any issues with diversity, but at the same time I'm not going to go out of my way to find it, or send my kids to a subpar school just to have it. I see some people are kind of white knights on a high horse about diversity. People are people if your black, white, yellow green I don't really care as long as your good people but I think seeking out diversity for sake of diversity is kinda silly.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by doodlemagic

Personally I don't have any issues with diversity, but at the same time I'm not going to go out of my way to find it, or send my kids to a subpar school just to have it. I see some people are kind of white knights on a high horse about diversity. People are people if your black, white, yellow green I don't really care as long as your good people but I think seeking out diversity for sake of diversity is kinda silly.

And that's fine, but it would be nice if some would at least tone down the rhetoric about how inclusive they are, and be more straight up about why they are recommending avoiding certain communities "because of the schools."

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by BRU67

And that's fine, but it would be nice if some would at least tone down the rhetoric about how inclusive they are, and be more straight up about why they are recommending avoiding certain communities "because of the schools."

At the risk of turning this into a totally off topic debate about class and race which isn't my intention, I will say I agree with you that it's not right or fair how some schools are horrible and are great, how some communities have amenities and activities and others don't.

I don't think most people avoid areas because of race, however there's no denying areas with higher incomes tend to be less diverse and areas with higher incomes tend to have better schools. Even African Americans often tend to seek out places like Naperville because they want to attend good schools more so than they want to be around people the same color as them.

[BRU67]

Yea, the thread is going to get closed if we keep on so I'll say no more. I just get very riled up over this, I'm sorry. It's a major pet peeve of mine.