[missionhome]

Well right, you are more than welcome to say CT schools as a whole, in general are good, but it doesn't make sense to say Canton High is good when it is a 6/10. I am not defending all of California. This is a huge state and there are places I would not even dare let my kid get an education at. We are blessed to be in one of the exception areas of California in south Orange County. Capistrano Unified and Saddleback Unified both are very good school districts in our area, but drive thirty minutes up the highway to Santa Ana and the schools are horrible. There just is a big difference between areas around here, some fantastic, many horrible, while I think Conneticut is fairly consistant at all of its schools. My point is, everyone should look at the idividual school before recommending it, and not assume just because it is in Conneticut that it is great.

[skytrekker]

missionhome that area of California has a median home price of around 1 million dollars- I would imagine that the San Capistrano area should have good schools- at that price. That area of south Orange county is very wealthy.

In my home here in Vernon CT -median home price 220K- the schools are by in large very good- and you do not have to live in a million dollar home district to attend. That says allot for overall quality of life to a family of more modest means.

[missionhome]

Very true and good point.
San Juan Capistrano by the way is the blight of the school district. Neighboring cities like Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Hills, or Dana Point are much better. The median is not 1 million either, but still very expensive and it is hard for many people to make it out here. The median though is 650-750k in south County, only 1 million plus for ocean front communities like Newport Beach.

[skytrekker]

I am very familiar with the area- San Juan is a pleasant enough of an historic town famous for the Mission and the swallows.

Newport Beach is very chi chi I agree- I happen to like Santa Barbara far more- just my preference- not cheap either.

Spent time and lived in the bay area however- love Marin county- and Sonoma.

[JayCT]

missionhome - I have a good friends in southern Orange county. They use to live in one of the towns you mentioned. One was educated here in CT in a town that is not known for good schools. They were not pleased with the schools they found in southern Orange County. They felt the facilities were over crowded, the teachers were over-worked, the curriculum not followed and uniform and there was no accountability for problems. The systems were just too big to operate well. They finally pulled their kids from the public schools and went to private. And this is after paying big bucks for one of those upscale homes. Jay

[cmow]

There are good and bad schools in every state. I used to teach here in California and what I was surprised at is that many of the programs would not exist if the parents were not so involve. Where I grew up in NY we had an art teacher, science teacher and gym teacher who were certified in those areas (this was in elementary school). Here you don't have art teachers - the parent volunteers run the art programs. No science teacher and not every child has gym class. You are also expected to contribute at least $350 a year per child to the school they are attending to help pay for programs, library expenses/supplies and not sure where else the $ goes to. In a school in the South Bay parents were being asked to donate $6,000 to a public school or programs would be cut. Where I went to school in NY you paid your taxes and that covered everything. You weren't asked to donate $ every year. I also heard from a teacher that Ca may be laying off teachers this coming school year because of the budget cuts. California is one of the few states that has to allow children of illegal immigrants to attend public schools even though the majority of them do not pay taxes and contribute to the cost of sending a child to school. We all know how many millions of children that is. There are also no school buses in the areas that I have lived. You are expected to bring your child to school and pick up your child at school every day. What a pain is that. I'd like to know where my taxes go?

[Bob The Builder]

Originally Posted by cmow

There are good and bad schools in every state. I used to teach here in California and what I was surprised at is that many of the programs would not exist if the parents were not so involve. Where I grew up in NY we had an art teacher, science teacher and gym teacher who were certified in those areas (this was in elementary school). Here you don't have art teachers - the parent volunteers run the art programs. No science teacher and not every child has gym class. You are also expected to contribute at least $350 a year per child to the school they are attending to help pay for programs, library expenses/supplies and not sure where else the $ goes to. In a school in the South Bay parents were being asked to donate $6,000 to a public school or programs would be cut. Where I went to school in NY you paid your taxes and that covered everything. You weren't asked to donate $ every year. I also heard from a teacher that Ca may be laying off teachers this coming school year because of the budget cuts. California is one of the few states that has to allow children of illegal immigrants to attend public schools even though the majority of them do not pay taxes and contribute to the cost of sending a child to school. We all know how many millions of children that is. There are also no school buses in the areas that I have lived. You are expected to bring your child to school and pick up your child at school every day. What a pain is that. I'd like to know where my taxes go?

When I was a little boy in the Bay Area there was all this hoopla about this new law called Prop 13. In essence, your property taxes would NEVER go up more than just a tiny tiny amount. In fact, property taxes were rolled back for existing homeowners (the vast majority of which were of a certain dominant racial profile). If you sold to a new homebuyer, the new guy would pay full bore based on the new purchase price. You could carry over your low taxes to your new home.

I bought my first house in 1987. I got the privilege of then paying 3k a year where my next door neighbor paid about 300 bucks. It has only gotten worse from there. In the same neighborhood, my old neighbor is still paying less than 1000 and the neighbor next to him is paying 10k.

This Prop 13 system in CA does not seem fair to ME. The people least able to afford it are carrying a vastly larger burden. But I understand and have heard the argument from the other side... They are old...They don't have kids in school... They were here first. If the new guy doesn't like it then he doesn't have to ...