[Wrens]

A bit about myself. 42, married, 3 kids (8,6,3), currently living in Western Colorado. I work for the federal government (don't hold that against me!!) and just rec'd a call from an old friend who would like me to come and work for him (still in the gov't...he'd be my boss). The office is in Las Vegas. I should mention that I was in the Air Force before joining the gov't and have lived all over (upstate NY, NC, Korea, Germany, OH, ID, etc etc).

So now I have the chance to move to Vegas. I've visited a few times (just the Strip :P) and never checked out the surrounding communities. Because of this possible offer, I've been scouring the internet on education, where to live, etc etc. From what I've read, it's about 8 to 2 for NOT raising a family in Las Vegas. Some reasons....terrible education (unless magnet school), HOT (meh...can deal for 4 months or so), hard to get a job (already have one), terrible smog, crime is bad, traffic is terrible etc etc.

Our main concern is education. Is it REALLY that bad?

Gaah....this would be a great work opportunity but have a lot of questions.

Here's what I'd really like answered....for those of you with young children, do you find Vegas lacking? Are you pleased with the education? Do you want to leave ASAP? It's a city...I get that...I used to live 20 miles from NYC and my folks, bro and sis live in or around Chicago currently so I know what city living entails.

Chances are I'll have more questions if anyone replies.

SO, thanks for any replies and reading this!!!

[KonaKat]

I loved living there but it is a very difficult place to keep your children safe. The schools are mediocre but there are some great teachers, too. I could not afford private schools when I moved there so public it was for me. Put your kids in private schools and don't ever let them out of your sight otherwise! Random violent crime is what finally caused us to move when an opportunity arose. Not the heat or the dust or anything else. (And I had a business making a very good living there, too)

We still have wonderful friends there and actually 2 or 3 of my kids' friends followed us to Hawaii and live here near us!

Have an exit strategy in case this is not a good fit for you.

[johninvegas]

Now let me preface this by saying I have no children, but...the kids on my street play in the street everyday. Not a single one of them has been abducted or molested in the nine years I've lived in this neighborhood. And no, it's not gated and we have no hoa riding herd on us. Perhaps our neighborhood has been lucky, but I live across the street from a fair sized park with lots of soccer going on, so I'm sure there are all sorts of people near our street.

As for the schools, according to what I've heard, there are some schools which are quite good in the public system. I think a large portion of the students come from families which don't pride education. Because of this, the students are ambivalent about learning and they get no help from their parents (or parent as the case may be). If you watch over your child's education, I'm pretty sure they will be able to go to college and succeed.

As for smog, crime and traffic. Well, if you've lived in NYC and have relatives in Chicago, you will absolutely love our lack of traffic. I used to live in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. and I can tell you, traffic is not bad at all. As for crime, stay away from the strip and other tourist places and I suspect our crime levels are about the same for any city our size. Smog is pretty much a non-problem for me, coming from Los Angeles. Sure there's smog, every large city has it, but today the sky was a beautiful deep blue and you could see the mountains more than 50 miles away.

[lvoc]

In general the school system is not very good. But the good schools are as good as any comparable community. My children were all schooled in suburban upstate NY and OC CA. I think the good schools here are about the same as the ones there. There is nothing particularly unusual about this. NYC has about the bottom schools in the US...but has lots of outstanding schools. Unless you go for a very high dollar at Meadows the private schools are no better than the upper level public schools

None of this is unusual. The quality of schools invariably correlates with the demographics of the area. The middle class and higher schools are fine as always.

Crime is moderate. The middle third for cities above 200,000. Henderson is in the best ten and is almost certainly matched by areas like Summerlin. Note that the official numbers over state crime here a good bit. The crimes of tourists are reported but not their population.

Smog occurs but rarely. All valley cities are going to have some smog. Las Vegas is better than most. In fact most of the relatively rare smog alerts occur in the winter when strong inversions occur.

Traffic is actually one of the selling points. For a good sized city it is better than almost anywhere. There are some nasty spots but they are easily evaded by locals.

[MollieW]

Go to www.zipdatamaps.com and put in the vaious zip codes for houses you are looking at. It will give you the school ratings and lots of other info. Looking in the Centennial Hills area will get you very good schools

[airics]

heres how i feel about the school, but take it with a grain of salt, i have no kids...... i don't think the schools are that bad.. of course some of them are.. but the same in every city...

if you are going by the scores, of course we are lower.. many kids don't know english when they start, neither do the parents.....we are a 24hr city... school is in session 7-4ish... parent works swing shift so there is no parent home teaching time.....

if i had kids, it would be of utmost importance to me to help my kids... which most don't

[ft_chief]

I have a 7th, 5th, and 4th graders in CCSD. My kids attend 2-star rated schools and they are all straight A students. My middle schooler is taking advanced courses and is also on the debate/speech team. I would have to rate the schools on the same level as DODEA for military overseas. Most folks here work odd hours and many parents can't speak English. Your kids can succeed here in Las Vegas, its all up to you as parents to make it happen.

[ScoopLV]

The average Las Vegas resident hasn't read a book for leisure since leaving high school. And while we attract all types -- scientists who work on top secret stuff at Area 51, probability and statistics wizards -- we mostly get the sorts of people who want to work here because someone who didn't finish high school can make close to six figures parking cars at the Bellagio or tending bar at the latest swanky nightclub. We're the go-to city for people looking for a low cost place to live with better than average pay.

That's what Las Vegas has going for it. The cost of living is low. And a large chunk of it's residents (the ones who park cars, tend bar, valets, deliver cocktails to slot players) make a better living than they could anywhere else. For many, the goal is: "Get in, live as cheap as possible, make as much money as humanly possible, and get out." That describes half my co-workers. The other half like it here, and are happy to work at the casino until they retire.

This is not exactly the city for literacy or culture. (The CCSU Literacy Study came out last week. We didn't do very well, and we slipped from last year. Google it if you'd like.) Uneducated parents aren't likely to motivate their children academically. If I had children, I would leave Las Vegas immediately -- I'd move someplace where the kids could have a better peer group. And, yes, a better school system. Our school system isn't managed as much as it's mismanaged. It's under funded. And what funding CCSD gets they fritter away on everything besides reducing class size, which is the one thing which we know that works.

But I don't like it here. I've never liked it here. And it is unlikely that anything will ever change my mind about this city. This city doesn't just accept mediocrity, it embraces it. Hell, Las Vegas glorifies it. It's all corporate monoculture. Drive around town and it's just an endless parade of drug stores, chain restaurants, video poker bars and carbon-copy neighborhoods.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

The average Las Vegas resident hasn't read a book for leisure since leaving high school. And while we attract all types -- scientists who work on top secret stuff at Area 51, probability and statistics wizards -- we mostly get the sorts of people who want to work here because someone who didn't finish high school can make close to six figures parking cars at the Bellagio or tending bar at the latest swanky nightclub. We're the go-to city for people looking for a low cost place to live with better than average pay.

That's what Las Vegas has going for it. The cost of living is low. And a large chunk of it's residents (the ones who park cars, tend bar, valets, deliver cocktails to slot players) make a better living than they could anywhere else. For many, the goal is: "Get in, live as cheap as possible, make as much money as humanly possible, and get out." That describes half my co-workers. The other half like it here, and are happy to work at the casino until they retire.

This is not exactly the city for literacy or culture. (The CCSU Literacy Study came out last week. We didn't do very well, and we slipped from last year. Google it if you'd like.) Uneducated parents aren't likely to motivate their children academically. If I had children, I would leave Las Vegas immediately -- I'd move someplace where the kids could have a better peer group. And, yes, a better school system. Our school system isn't managed as much as it's mismanaged. It's under funded. And what funding CCSD gets they fritter away on everything besides reducing class size, which is the one thing which we know that works.

But I don't like it here. I've never liked it here. And it is unlikely that anything will ever change my mind about this city. This city doesn't just accept mediocrity, it embraces it. Hell, Las Vegas glorifies it. It's all corporate monoculture. Drive around town and it's just an endless parade of drug stores, chain restaurants, video poker bars and carbon-copy neighborhoods.

What one needs to get from this is that Scoop does not like Las Vegas.

A classical example is the CCSU literacy study. We did not slip from last year and likely have not moved statistically in the last five. And we actually do better than Phoenix, Houston and most of the California cities including LA.

One with an open mind would simply disregard his view as hopelessly biased.

[ragabnh]

I lived in Green Valley which is part of Henderson for 13 years, my son was born during that time and attended elementary and middle school. I would say education was good and the school system was also good, at least David and Cox Elementary and Bob Miller Middle School. Neighbourhood was safe and I don't recall crime. Kids are all over the place with hardly any issues.

I moved from Sacramento California due to job relocation, it is more affordable and newer than most of Ca, at least no state tax.

Given my past experience I would do it again.