Moving to Las Cruses Area

[winnie]

There is plenty to do down there.

Elephant Butte Lake for swimming, boating, jetskiing
Alamogordo for wineries and pistachio groves, skiing up in Cloudcroft/Ruidoso area
Casino over in Ruidoso
White Sands NM - my favorite place on earth
Carlsbad Caverns
Relatively easy drive up to Alb area for shopping and more cultural/outdoors stuff

Grab a trip guide to NM. I recommend Frommer's.

All driving there is pretty easy as the roads are nice and flat (for the most part) and speed limit is between 65 and 75 for many highways.

And enjoy! Coming from NJ you are going to love the prices in NM.

[winnie]

Domino - NJ has something like 550 school districts, which is the same number of districts as NY, which has TWICE the residents and FOUR times the land area...and pretty darn good school systems I might add.

NJ's high taxes do not give the state better education..that is for certain! It serves to line the pockets of the buddy system in state govt.

[domino]

My only point was that schools and money spent on education are not only for the benefit of those with school age children. Whether money is well spent is another issue.

[Cdeluca22]

Originally Posted by winnie

Domino - NJ has something like 550 school districts, which is the same number of districts as NY, which has TWICE the residents and FOUR times the land area...and pretty darn good school systems I might add.

NJ's high taxes do not give the state better education..that is for certain! It serves to line the pockets of the buddy system in state govt.

Part of the School issue is that every township wants to be in control for example my High school is a regional one with 5 Towns sending students there it works well and the education is pretty well rounded however it costs 10K a year per head to educate them and that is a low number compared to others where the avarage cost per student is 15k. Tax is based on the Number of students sent from each district. each district (Remember 5) has K to 8 to support (also around 9k per head in my district) and additional taxes, they each have a school superintendent at a 3 figure salary and a business administrator at a high 5 figure salary not to mention support staff all with full benefits.

I ramble but here is the kicker the smallest district (under 150 students) K-8 need major building repairs new electrical, security, phone, systems as well as handicapped access which is estimated at 3.5m . the 3 neighboring towns schools have all done building additions/upgrades over the last 3 years. they have excess room now. How hard would it be to close this older school and send the students via paid tuition to any of the other 4. and cut the expense. nope they are going to the electorate for a vote and the few people that do turned it down now they cut it to 1.5M and are trying again, keep in mind they also need a roof which is not in the bid! This goes on over the whole state so you see how waste prevails over the 550+ school districts each with a superintendent, Business Administrator and support staff lawyer etc.. and some with no schools?

NO COMMON SENCE.

Anyway I can not wait to leave NJ

[winnie]

Originally Posted by domino

My only point was that schools and money spent on education are not only for the benefit of those with school age children. Whether money is well spent is another issue.

I dont disagree.

Many people I meet tho equate high taxes with good schools..and that does not have to be. If you have lived in NJ you have gotten a full dose of that lesson.

[GregJ]

Looking for a nice, quiet rural town that's a little on the upscale (but not yuppie side). Have a friend that likes Ruidoso. I checked it out on City-Data and GoogleEarth and it definitely looks good.

Any comments???

Greg