Suggestion needed to buy a place in NJ

[Calico696]

Originally Posted by Jersey25

Why pay 18k to 20k in annual taxes for year and years if you can pay 15k a year for a good private high school in North NJ and live in a town that has less taxes.

As if 15k/year is a bargain.

[ansky]

Originally Posted by jaymoney

I don't want to get into it here, but I can't figure out where Montclair is blowing all their money then, Cranford has half the tax rate but the same level of schools and other support services.

Montclair has a fully paid fire department. Cranford has a mostly volunteer department. That's just one example.

[vintastic]

What's your basis for determine the rating for the school system? School system is somewhat subjective. One year you could have a 10 and 1 year later is could be an 8. And its all because the newer students helped the test scores go up or down.

[jaymoney]

Originally Posted by vintastic

What's your basis for determine the rating for the school system? School system is somewhat subjective. One year you could have a 10 and 1 year later is could be an 8. And its all because the newer students helped the test scores go up.

Of course it's subjective, even with standardized testing. That's why you look over history and not just pick one year. Because unless you're putting your kids in high school the next year what it's like this year is largely irrelevant. But if the past fifteen years test scores have been high, a graduation rate in the upper 90's, and a good number of students have gotten scholarships you're starting to plot some data.

If, during that same range a school has a graduation rate in the 60% range and students who score low on the SATs, has been consistently 290-299th in a series of 300 schools you'll take all that into account. Nobody should make any decisions like this on a single data point.

You don't buy a car because you like the color without test driving it or seeing the MPG. You take a number of points as a whole and balance costs versus what you perceive as benefits. Maybe one district has a great arts program or full day kindergarden or your family is closer. You take all of these rankings as a general guideline and one point of data, not the whole story.