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Old 05-06-2013, 07:16 PM
 
550 posts, read 985,096 times
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Originally Posted by AtlJan View Post
Well said, brownhornet! I've been thinking the same thing. I suppose the "top schools" posters are also saying they want newer, larger houses to go with the schools? I understand that also. Personally, I would send my children to Riverwood (good enough school?) and have a shorter commute to Buckhead than be stuck driving back and forth to East Cobb every day, but it really is a personal decision with lots of variables.
We would have done this. I think Riverwood is more than good enough. But there was one house in our price-range when we were looking. One. We have a beautiful house in East Cobb, and other than my husband's commute to downtown, we are very happy with this area. Hoping he will be transferred to Buckhead in the next few years though.
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Old 05-06-2013, 07:23 PM
 
550 posts, read 985,096 times
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Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post

Another thing is schools are great barometers of what areas are like. Have you ever noticed that good schools are typically in areas with involved parents who care about things like education, libraries, parks, community, social responsibility, etc.? If you find an area with a good public school system, it tends to say something about the core values of the community that you are buying in. That's why realtors generally use school district to help select areas for people, even if they aren't specifically looking for a great school. Heck, I don't have kids and probably never will, but I still understood the value of buying in a good school district.
I know many parents who care about education and social responsiblity, who are working and poor and don't have the freedom to choose to be very involved at school when they are struggling to keep food on the table and the lights on. The (poor) quality of the schools their children attend is not a reflection of their core values. That said, yes--it is smart to buy in a good school district if you can afford it.
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Old 05-07-2013, 02:06 PM
 
Location: 30080
2,390 posts, read 4,388,051 times
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Originally Posted by ATLTJL View Post
Well, I think what's happening is really a few things combined.

First, schools have degraded to a point where it's not just the bad kids not learning while the good kids learn. I think the concern is if the school isn't good, the teachers will spend more time on disciplinary problems than on teaching. I haven't been in a school for a long time, but this is the perception, and my teacher friends more or less echo this problem.

The other thing is college isn't like it was when we were kids. Nowadays, a decent GPA and respectable test scores aren't even enough to guarantee entry into UGA. So kids have to make sure they have whatever advantage they can get to make sure they get into a decent school. The ivy league kids are always going to be ivy league kids, the dummies are always going to be dummies....it's the average kids and above average kids that are in huge competition to make sure the get the edge in getting a great higher education.

And that's why you see so much being discussed on schools.

Also, remember, that children are the biggest projects and investments people have and education is probably one of the single most important things parents can do to give their kids advantages. That's why most people aren't interested in "good enough" as far as schools are concerned, they want the best they can possibly provide. I think it's fairly understandable.

Another thing is schools are great barometers of what areas are like. Have you ever noticed that good schools are typically in areas with involved parents who care about things like education, libraries, parks, community, social responsibility, etc.? If you find an area with a good public school system, it tends to say something about the core values of the community that you are buying in. That's why realtors generally use school district to help select areas for people, even if they aren't specifically looking for a great school. Heck, I don't have kids and probably never will, but I still understood the value of buying in a good school district.

It's all part of a big picture and you have to take it in context. I'm not saying if you work in midtown and can afford a house in midtown and you don't have any kids that you should be afraid to buy in midtown because the schools aren't good enough. But you know what I mean, schools are important for lots of reasons.
Going to a top school doesn't necessarily give you an "advantage" though. I know plenty of people that went to the academy that barely even got into college. At the end of the day it still boils down to what the child does at home just as much if not more than the school ranking. Same applies to colleges unless you're talking about the Ivy League. It's like all the hate HBCU's get on here yet still, even Ivy League studies show that HBCU grads fare no worse in the professional field than those that go to white schools. The top 30 HBCU's produce more doctoral grads than white schools, and according to "rankings" how many of them do you see in the top 50? Only 20% of blacks attend HBCU's yet 40% of all black engineers stem from them. Of the top 20 schools producing black Ph.d students, 17 are HBCU's. I could go on but my point here is that even on the high school level, going to a "top school" isn't what's going to guarantee a kid success. And going to a school that isn't considered "top" isn't a disadvantage. And out of all of those kids mentioned above, i'm willing to bet the majority didn't go to "top" high school systems.

Again, i'm not saying it's not a good thing to go to one of the top schools but it's most definitely not a deal breaker if you don't. Unless of course you aren't planning on making sure that your kids are on their jobs once they walk out of the school.
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