folsom vs. el dorado hills (Sacramento, Palo Alto: crime, credit, home)

[wenb]

Nina or anyone,
Maybe you can help! We are moving from DFW and also lived in Houston for 12 years prior. We are looking at El Dorado Hills. I have boys in 5th and 6th grade. We flew out there about a month ago to look at neighborhoods. We are thoroughly confused on the price per sq. foot for some of the houses - It's all over the board and I'm not even talking about short sales (which should be renamed "long"). We like the feel of Serrano and Promontory, but again, some are in short conting. or short sales, etc. Our kids are extremely outgoing and love to be outside. We would like to be in an area where there are lots of kids. Any suggestions?

[NinaN]

I sent you a direct message because it's a long and detailed and I'm not sure everyone wants to see all that. If you do, let me know and I'll copy it here.
Nina

[NinaN]

I forgot to mention, the Serrano and Promontory are full of families with kids. Neighborhood parks abound out here, no matter what subdivision you pick. Your kids will have no problem finding outdoor stuff to do. The big thing for that is watching the steepness of the roads where you buy and the usability of the yard due to slopes. It's another thing hard to tell from looking at pics on the internet and it can vary block to block. Nina

[headdr]

I lived in Gold River for 12 years and loved it there. Hard to compare it to EDH, which I also think is a wonderful area. I'm originally from Houston too, though I lived in CA for 19 years. While real estate is certainly an ever changing entity, I can say that houses in Gold River do maintain there value. My wife and I relocated to NC about 2 years ago and while our Gold River house was certainly valued less than it would have been a while back ago, we got a very good price for it AND sold it after only about 3 weeks on the market.

[bluevelo]

As someone who has small children that live in CT with their mom - suburban Hartford, not anywhere near the city - I wouldn't move to anyplace in California, no matter how nice the suburbs, because California public schools are just ... bad. Period. Even EDH and Folsom, I wouldn't have my kids in those schools. Part of it is due to demographics, but a lot of it is due to the gang banger culture and anti-intellectualism of California in general... even the private schools here in Sacramento are simply not that good. The West Coast is just not very good academically period compared to the Midwest and East Coast.

[NinaN]

I happen to think you are wrong. There are certainly schools out here that I would not choose for my son. But most the schools in Folsom and all the schools in EDH are top rated and excellent choices. I still believe it is up to the parents, and not the schools, to teach kids to value education and get out of it everything it has to offer. When parents do that, kids thrive. When they depend on the schools to do it for them, kids can fall into the wrong mode and not do as well. There are always exceptions in both directions.

I'm surprised to see the "anti-intellectualism" comment. It was a culture shock for me to come out here and see all the moms who think their children have to be in pre-school that focuses strictly on learning right until they get into kindergarden. I think it's too much. Kids need to play and socialize when they are 2 and 3. They have plenty of years to focus on learning. And trust me, I am a very education oriented person.

[Mossy]

Originally Posted by bluevelo

As someone who has small children that live in CT with their mom - suburban Hartford, not anywhere near the city - I wouldn't move to anyplace in California, no matter how nice the suburbs, because California public schools are just ... bad. Period. Even EDH and Folsom, I wouldn't have my kids in those schools. Part of it is due to demographics, but a lot of it is due to the gang banger culture and anti-intellectualism of California in general... even the private schools here in Sacramento are simply not that good. The West Coast is just not very good academically period compared to the Midwest and East Coast.

I agree with you Blue! Being from the east coast, I definitely think the schools in Ca. are not very good as a whole which makes me very scared for my daughter who will be entering Kindergarten next Fall.

[OnlyBoys4Me]

Actually Connecticut rates a D on both Language Arts and Mathmatics as reported by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (advocacy group that monitors public education throughout the nation). California rates an A on both LA and Math.

You can read each state's report at


http://edexcellence.net/201007_state_education_standards_common_standards/Connecticut.pdf (broken link)

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by OnlyBoys4Me

Actually Connecticut rates a D on both Language Arts and Mathmatics as reported by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (advocacy group that monitors public education throughout the nation). California rates an A on both LA and Math.

You can read each state's report at


http://edexcellence.net/201007_state_education_standards_common_standards/Connecticut.pdf (broken link)

As someone who BA'ed in English and MA'ed in Urban Planning, I spend a great deal of time in my job writing and reading documents. One of the biggest criticisms I have of the work of others that I review is how much poorly written material I come across on a frequent basis.

Reading the CT critique, it seems like they are basing their entire argument on how the documents are written rather than looking at the *content* of what's actually being taught, looking at ACT/SAT scores, etc... if CT schools were really horrible (and I realize a lot of the East Coast moneyed class has their kids in private schools anyway), then how come the entire state - at least the Western/Southern half - is basically a suburb for NYC and knowledge-based workers? Yes, NYC is expensive but so is suburban CT.

In most of the cases of the poorly written material I review, the actual processes that the material describes aren't broken, and are actually meeting the planning requirements (I wish to keep my agency anonymous on this), but they've simply been lazy and not done a good job of documentation.

[bluevelo]

Originally Posted by NinaN

I happen to think you are wrong. There are certainly schools out here that I would not choose for my son. But most the schools in Folsom and all the schools in EDH are top rated and excellent choices. I still believe it is up to the parents, and not the schools, to teach kids to value education and get out of it everything it has to offer. When parents do that, kids thrive. When they depend on the schools to do it for them, kids can fall into the wrong mode and not do as well. There are always exceptions in both directions.

I'm surprised to see the "anti-intellectualism" comment. It was a culture shock for me to come out here and see all the moms who think their children have to be in pre-school that focuses strictly on learning right until they get into kindergarden. I think it's too much. Kids need to play and socialize when they are 2 and 3. They have plenty of years to focus on learning. And trust me, I am a very education oriented person.

That's the more affluent burbs anywhere. Still, from what I've seen of Folsom and EDH schools and the students that come out of them, East coast and Midwest suburban school systems are just a hell of a lot better. California is not a place that nutures smart people; Silicon Valley may attract them, but outside of Silicon Valley I would not call California a place that attracts intellectuals - potheads, the lazy and illegals, yes, but again, I don't think this is a good place to raise children, even in the so-called "nice" suburbs. Which is why I'm shaking the bushes to find a position back near my kids in CT. California education sucks.