How much should I care about school district quality?

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by Pequaman

Good post I_LOVE, tried to rep ya but I have to "spread some reps around".. One of the few obvious exceptions to the statement above, is Plainview. The school taxes there are astronomical.. but it pays off I suppose> Long Island Schools - Test scores, school programs - Newsday.com

The astronomical school taxes only pay off for a very few people, and I am sure many of them don't even live in Plainview itself: those who benefit from the teachers' union running things in Plainview, namely teachers and the superintendants and administrators who pay themselves like rock stars based on them being the "bosses" of the highly compensated teaching staff.

Plainview is only paying extremely high taxes because Plainview has highly compensated administrators and teachers.

Extremely high taxes does not equal extremely high student performance, although that IS what the teachers' unions want people to believe.

The quality of the students and their parents' dedication to discipline and education are the major factors that makes it so "good" as a school district.

If they did not have these unions cannibalizing the taxpayers for the benefits of their members and Plainview's average property taxes were lower ... guess what? Plainview's academic ratings would still be high because it's the same PEOPLE living in the school district.

Originally Posted by Pequaman

Yeah, you want your children to be able to read..especially since Globalization is changing economies around the world.

Yes, be able to read and write in other languages too if things keep on as they have been ... learn Chinese dialects, Hindi and Spanish too.

[ovi8]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Chiming in on taxes -- not all (perceived) good school districts have higher taxes compared to those in (perceived) lesser districts. Part of that has to do with the amount of commercial properties within the district. An area low on commercial properties will cause homeowners to pay more. Wasn't a few years ago when Nassau took on the Herculean task of reassessing that the people in the 'poorer' areas ended up paying more than those in more affluent ones?

case in point - Plainview vs. Syosset... same style homes right next to each other - but Syosset generally has lower taxes, a bit more commercial, and a somewhat better SD. Home prices are generally higher though. Do you want to pay that extra $50-100k in the home price up front or through tax difference over the years? Do you want more or less home for your money? Does the SD matter more?