Why are most parents obsessed with "good" schools?

[ScranBarre]

Thanks. I'm feeling a bit better now and should be back to work tomorrow (fortunately the boss is on vacation, and it's been a very slow week anyways!)

My housing value comments come into play because I know back in Northeastern Pennsylvania the areas with the most expensive housing also had the schools with the highest rankings/test scores. It seemed to me very much so that sellers were able to ask for higher housing prices because buyers would be willing to pay them in order to send their children to these schools. However, in that area the schools were fixed and weren't subject to a "pyramid" system, so it's understandable in a sense that people COULD pay $250,000 for a home that would sell for $175,000 in a less desirable adjoining school district and know that their investment would be sound as long as the school district held up its end of the bargain in providing good academics. In NoVA I just don't see why people can ask more for the homes they're selling in "great school pyramids" if there's no guarantee that the pyramid will be the same five years down the line. If someone paid $900,000 for a home that was really only worth $750,000 because the pyramid included a great high school, and then redistricting three years later set the stage for the children at that address to attend a less desirable high school, then wouldn't the home's resale value tank? I honestly see no other reason for housing prices in places like Vienna, McLean, Langley, or Great Falls to be so much more exorbitant than the rest of the region other than buyers using the strong school pyramids as a "crutch." The quality-of-life doesn't seem to be any higher in a place like Great Falls than a place like Reston (on the contrary with the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, commerce, etc. in Great Falls it seems like a pretty UNdesirable place to live for most).

[cardinal2007]

I think the main reason is that the parents want their children to be able to attend a good college, and for the children to do well academically there so they can get good jobs and not be saddled with debt they can't afford to pay back; and do all this without them actually having to bother doing much work themselves.

[claremarie]

"In NoVA I just don't see why people can ask more for the homes they're selling in "great school pyramids" if there's no guarantee that the pyramid will be the same five years down the line."

True, there are no guarantees, but in the established, close-in neighborhoods with little open space for dense development, you can be pretty sure that your school pyramid won't change. If you live near Langley HS, you're not going to be redistricted.

[JEB77]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Thanks. I'm feeling a bit better now and should be back to work tomorrow (fortunately the boss is on vacation, and it's been a very slow week anyways!)

My housing value comments come into play because I know back in Northeastern Pennsylvania the areas with the most expensive housing also had the schools with the highest rankings/test scores. It seemed to me very much so that sellers were able to ask for higher housing prices because buyers would be willing to pay them in order to send their children to these schools. However, in that area the schools were fixed and weren't subject to a "pyramid" system, so it's understandable in a sense that people COULD pay $250,000 for a home that would sell for $175,000 in a less desirable adjoining school district and know that their investment would be sound as long as the school district held up its end of the bargain in providing good academics. In NoVA I just don't see why people can ask more for the homes they're selling in "great school pyramids" if there's no guarantee that the pyramid will be the same five years down the line. If someone paid $900,000 for a home that was really only worth $750,000 because the pyramid included a great high school, and then redistricting three years later set the stage for the children at that address to attend a less desirable high school, then wouldn't the home's resale value tank? I honestly see no other reason for housing prices in places like Vienna, McLean, Langley, or Great Falls to be so much more exorbitant than the rest of the region other than buyers using the strong school pyramids as a "crutch." The quality-of-life doesn't seem to be any higher in a place like Great Falls than a place like Reston (on the contrary with the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes, commerce, etc. in Great Falls it seems like a pretty UNdesirable place to live for most).

It seems to me that, to the extent that buyers pay a hefty premium to be in certain school districts, they are more likely to do so in areas where the boundaries are fixed and the disparities among schools are more pronounced than in adjoining school "pyramids" in Fairfax County. The higher housing prices in places like McLean and Vienna also reflect other factors besides the schools, such as low crime and proximity to job centers (DC, Tysons) and/or Metro.

That's not to say that homes in certain school districts don't command some premium over homes in adjacent areas that feed into schools that are perceived as less prestigious or where the test scores are lower. I just don't think the school-related premiums, to the extent they could be isolated, are of the magnitude that you hypothesize. It also seems to me that home prices in the county can and should reflect the perceived risk of a redistricting.

As you may know, the most controversial redistricting in recent years was the one that sent students from Westfield, Oakton and Madison HS to South Lakes HS in Reston. I suppose that an economist with the right tools could try and determine whether homes in those neighborhoods declined significantly in value because of the redistricting. At least with respect to the so-called "Madison Island" area that was redistricted from Madison to South Lakes, some people never understood why those students weren't assigned to South Lakes already, even though they had Vienna mailing addresses. There were a fair number of families that were very upset with the redistricting and put their houses on the market at roughly the same time, after having complained loudly that the redistricting would negatively impact their home values. This was not an ideal sales and marketing strategy and, as you might imagine, some then sold their homes at significant losses. I have no idea, however, whether a longer-term study would find that there was any significant, permanent impairment in the value of these homes due to the redistricting. In fact, if the redistricting bolsters the reputation of South Lakes over the long term, it should restore some of whatever short-term decline that might have occurred in the home values and could be ascribed to the redistricting. [And others would say "tough cookies," even if it doesn't ...]

[Yankeesfan]

The "pyramids" are a method to organize a school system that has well over two hundred individual schools and around two dozen high schools. That isn't necessary in smaller districts -- my hometown had (and still has) one high school, two junior highs, and five or six elementary schools.

Boundary changes happen primarily (though not always) when a new school opens in an area that has had population growth and so boundaries shift to accommodate that. For example, the development of Kingstowne and the surrounding area resulted in two new elementary schools built several years apart; the building boom in Fairfax Station resulted in South County High School; there was a huge amount of growth in the Centreville area, etc. There are some neighborhoods that were booming with children a generation or two ago but now have a higher percentage of senior residents because the original homeowners stayed but their children have grown up and moved elsewhere. So their schools may be somewhat underpopulated while others have multiple trailers.

As the county has been pretty much built-out, things tend to stabilize. But some degree of tweaking will probably always be necessary. One thing is certain: school boards dread having to deal with boundary changes!