I can't believe this is still such a problem in KC... (Kansas City: crime rates, buying a house)

[kcmo]

Why do Kansans (really just Johnson Countians) continue to act like the only decent public schools in metro KC are on the Kansas side. Especially now considering the financial crisis the Kansas schools are in. I'm not saying the Kansas schools are bad. I'm sure the schools there will continue to be good. (at least in Johnson County anyway, the rest of the state is a different story). I mean if you want to live in Shawnee, or Olathe or Lenexa or Overland Park, then you will have some great public school districts and great schools within those districts. Why is it so difficult for Kansans to comprehend that people have very similar school options in Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, Liberty, Gladstone, Kansas City North, Parkville, Raymore etc? The districts in the northland and eastern jackson county are just as good as anything on the Kansas side. Even parts of Independence and Raytown have some decent options for those that need more modest housing.

People in JoCo need to take a drive up to see Shoal Creek High, Park Hill, Liberty North, Blue Springs South, Lee's Summit West and tell me how in the world those schools and the areas around them don't look EXACTLY like JoCo. Park Hill is actually ranked the best district in the metro. Lee's Summit is in the top few and both of those districts actually have some diversity (racial, social, economic etc). I'll say it again. It's easy for a district like Blue Valley to have amazing stats when the medium income is like 200k. They have almost no social challenges there. No subsidized housing to drag down test scores etc. Whatever problems they do have are swept under the rug and trust me, districts like Blue Valley have a lot of problems, mostly with drugs, alcohol with dual income parents away all the time. The Northland is booming. Two new high schools have opened. Platte County District and Park Hill are each about to build another high school in Platte County. Lee's Summit and Blue Springs both have very good districts and modern well funded schools.

This has always been one of my biggest pet peeves with Johnson Countians and one of the biggest reasons I developed a lot of animosity toward them and I was not alone. When I lived in eastern jackson county and platte county, most people I knew in those same areas were also very annoyed by this.

Give it up JoCo. You are not god's gift to the planet or even KC. Your are a typical suburb and you would barely be noticed if you were in most large coastal cities (JoCo would be pretty bland, boring and dated actually). You might be the best thing Kansas has to offer, but that's about as far as it goes.

Links to competing sites not allowed.

I don't post on kc reddit because threads like this would make me post and I don't have time. This forum is enough.

I just got a job in KC and will be moving my family there from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Looks like we could afford to buy a house that is twice as nice as one we could rent. So we are planning to buy.

Everyone I know there has been telling us to move to Johnson County (Blue Valley School District). We have a young child starting school next year. It's a nice area but we aren't over the moon.

We checked out Blue Springs and loved the small community feel of it. Plus we can get a much nicer house there in our price range. But I'm concerned that there aren't many school options there. If we don't like the public school it seems we'll be forced to go to catholic school as the only private school option? Everyone was adamant that Kansas schools were far superior to Missouri schools.

Also, it seems like the closest major shopping/activities would be Independence, which I'm told has higher crime rates. This would likely be where our Doctors etc would be as well.

Finally, I'd also like to live in a neighborhood with other small children but it seems like a lot of the Blue Springs population is older.

I'm well aware that all the things I like about Blue Springs are also the things I'm bringing up as concerns, but I'd feel much more comfortable if the closest "commercialized" area was a safe area. I just don't want to make such a long term commitment of buying a house if we'll regret it in the long run.

PS. Commute wise is about the same either way. I'll be working near the 435/I70 interchange.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Why do Kansans (really just Johnson Countians) continue to act like the only decent public schools in metro KC are on the Kansas side.

We don't.

I worked closely with nearly every public district in the metro for years due to my job, and know exactly where the most well-programmed, well-run districts are on either side of State Line.

[kcmo]

^ so because "you" don't do it, this is not an issue? Come on...

This has been a part of JoCo culture for a long as I can remember and it apparently still is.

[TabulaRasa]

If you're going to say "Why do [insert large group] do __________," get used to getting called out for generalizing. *shrug*

[CrownVic95]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Why do Kansans (really just Johnson Countians) continue to act like the only decent public schools in metro KC are on the Kansas side. Especially now considering the financial crisis the Kansas schools are in. I'm not saying the Kansas schools are bad. I'm sure the schools there will continue to be good. (at least in Johnson County anyway, the rest of the state is a different story). I mean if you want to live in Shawnee, or Olathe or Lenexa or Overland Park, then you will have some great public school districts and great schools within those districts. Why is it so difficult for Kansans to comprehend that people have very similar school options in Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, Liberty, Gladstone, Kansas City North, Parkville, Raymore etc? The districts in the northland and eastern jackson county are just as good as anything on the Kansas side. Even parts of Independence and Raytown have some decent options for those that need more modest housing.

People in JoCo need to take a drive up to see Shoal Creek High, Park Hill, Liberty North, Blue Springs South, Lee's Summit West and tell me how in the world those schools and the areas around them don't look EXACTLY like JoCo. Park Hill is actually ranked the best district in the metro. Lee's Summit is in the top few and both of those districts actually have some diversity (racial, social, economic etc). I'll say it again. It's easy for a district like Blue Valley to have amazing stats when the medium income is like 200k. They have almost no social challenges there. No subsidized housing to drag down test scores etc. Whatever problems they do have are swept under the rug and trust me, districts like Blue Valley have a lot of problems, mostly with drugs, alcohol with dual income parents away all the time. The Northland is booming. Two new high schools have opened. Platte County District and Park Hill are each about to build another high school in Platte County. Lee's Summit and Blue Springs both have very good districts and modern well funded schools.

This has always been one of my biggest pet peeves with Johnson Countians and one of the biggest reasons I developed a lot of animosity toward them and I was not alone. When I lived in eastern jackson county and platte county, most people I knew in those same areas were also very annoyed by this.

Give it up JoCo. You are not god's gift to the planet or even KC. Your are a typical suburb and you would barely be noticed if you were in most large coastal cities (JoCo would be pretty bland, boring and dated actually). You might be the best thing Kansas has to offer, but that's about as far as it goes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/..._blue_springs/

I don't post on kc reddit because threads like this would make me post and I don't have time. This forum is enough.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. You don't have time to post on reddit, but after and despite your 10 years of trolling and soiling this forum with your anti-Kansas bile, you have plenty of time to compose and post a regurgitated refresher rant....just in case anyone new has joined in the last 4 hours.

[adebord]

I grew up in Independence and frankly, they are probably right. If your student is highly driven there are few districts in the country that have the resources to go above and beyond like blue valley sd.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by adebord

I grew up in Independence and frankly, they are probably right. If your student is highly driven there are few districts in the country that have the resources to go above and beyond like blue valley sd.

Nah. I don't buy that at all. Sorry. BV is a great district, but there are several others across KC and hundreds of districts across the country that are equally as good. That's my point. Why would people tell this person they have to go to BV making them question Blue Springs? And what is the average house cost in BV? 450k? So you have to be able to afford a house like that to have good schools. Yea....no.

Blue Springs has huge high schools. I have been told the main reason they have not built a third high school is so they have the ability to offer a ton of college courses etc by having such large and diverse student bases. Blue Springs high is basically a small college campus. Lee's Summit, Park Hill, Staley etc all have similar opportunities.

And honestly, a highly driven student with good parents will do very well in even a mediocre district. Student motivation and maturity is 90% of how a student performs regardless of the district.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by kcmo

And honestly, a highly driven student with good parents will do very well in even a mediocre district. Student motivation and maturity is 90% of how a student performs regardless of the district.

This is very, very true.

What isn't true, however, is that every resident of Johnson County, Kansas, is driven by virulent hatred and bias to trash talk every metro school district that's not within their borders.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

This is very, very true.

What isn't true, however, is that every resident of Johnson County, Kansas, is driven by virulent hatred and bias to trash talk every metro school district that's not within their borders.

Right. I didn't mean that "every" resident of the county is like this. But enough of them are that it's a nuisance and most people in the good districts on the MO side will agree. Ask anybody that has relocated to KC and I'll bet you anything that if they were in contact with JoCo people, that they were being sold JoCo hard often by devaluing anything on the MO side. That's why people that move to KC have to go out of their way to not be persuaded to move to Kansas.

That's changing now with so many choices and so much growth on the Mo side plus the ability to research online and find out for yourself that JoCo is not the only place in the metro with great schools and nice suburban neighborhoods. That's why I'm surprised many JoCo people still do this when suburban growth is actually more robust on the MO side and KS is dealing with major budget issues. If somebody likes a home in Blue Springs and are being told that JoCo is where they should be moving, that's just so misleading.

You almost never hear people in Platte County or Lee' Summit say that kind of stuff. It's not because they don't think their schools are as good. It's just that they don't feel the need to do that. Maybe they are more educated about the metro or just don't care if people think Platte County is the best place to live in the world. They are probably spending most of their time telling people that their kids are just fine going to Park Hill Schools even though they could probably afford to live in Leawood if they wanted to.

[JustLookAtTheNumbers]

Originally Posted by kcmo

Park Hill is actually ranked the best district in the metro

Where's your data for this? The very first ranking link that comes up after a google search shows Park Hill at #4.

https://www.niche.com/k12/rankings/p...ty-metro-area/