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Depends what you are looking for, and what your kids' needs are.
If you want to stay out of the Amherst-Leverrett-Pelham-Shutesbury school system (my kids are in it - it has a good reputation but long-term financial problems, many people happily avoid it, nonetheless it happens to be a good fit for my fairly eccentric kids) you have a pretty good range of choices with Belchertown, Hadley and South Hadley.
Hadley has a very strong high school. It does not have all the bells and whistles like Amherst, but in terms of standard American curriculum it performs at a high standard. Hadley has a very strong tax base and a sober town management.
South Hadley has more affordable housing, but still has the character of a college town due to Mount Holyoke. I don't know much about the schools there, but my limited understanding is that they are a step down from Hadley or Belchertown.
Belchertown has less of a tax base, and has more of the feel of a small town. The schools are certainly fine as far as most kids' needs are concerned, although it may be at a lower standard than Hadley.
massstats.org gives some testing results under the education maps. The test score rankings, of course, are as much a measure of the socioeconomic level of the respective towns as anything else.
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Life in Western, Ma
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