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And no matter how good or slightly less good the school, a lot is going to depend upon your kid. We were in a decent town in Bergen County, though not one of the top-ranked ones, and my daughter was in the top 15% of her class of 95 students (they don't tell you the exact rankings, just that she was in the top 15% but she knew she wasn't in the top ten because they got some kind of award at graduation so she figured she had to be # 12 or 13, lol). However, she is a dedicated student and doing very well in college. She's always been a bit of a geek as far as her studying goes (unlike her parents) and so she made the most of her education. I've met kids from Ridgewood and Wyckoff who didn't do much with their primo education, too.
Of course everyone wants to give their kids the best advantage they can afford, but it's not the only factor.
Your side note does bring back memories. I thought exactly as your friend regarding school lunch. It's a bit humbling when you see it as an adult. Thank God those kids at least get fed in school as I knew kids that had no food at home.
Now we're in a total 180 environment -- redshirt Kindergarteners, No free Pre-k, half day Kindergarten and the fund raising...holy schmoly. There is more school fund raising than I have ever experienced. And when you're done there, you have your local town fund raising and then at work you have to support your peers...It's a full time job just to support it!
That's something that has changed drastically since I went to school, too. I grew up in the same town as where I raised my daughter, but it was a different place back then--semi-rural, more blue-collar. Around the 80's it got built up and sewers and curbs were put in and people with more money came in. I moved back to town when my daughter was in kindergarten, and I was shocked at all the fundraising we were supposed to do--wrapping paper sales, plant sales, pumpkin sales, and all these events designed to raise money throughout the year. It surprised me because now that the town had richer residents it seemed the schools always needed more money and I thought it would be the other way around.
It is absolutely about educating your kids, however, the unfortunate side is that the real estate collapse really put such a dense fog in what has value and what doesn't that it's just not as easy of an answer for new buyers who are paranoid in making the wrong choice. I find the price valuations from neighborhood to neighborhood have become much bigger than closer. We just purchased this summer after 8 months of 'searching' and experienced all this first hand. Thanks to CD forums as well as many posters here provide so much information --- you get both sides of it too, which is so valuable!
Add to it my previous story from the 'hood' with the poor choice of buying our 1st home --at the wrong place, at the wrong time (Feb 2006) and we weren't going to wildly speculate anymore. We ended up focusing more and more on the higher tier (cost wise) neighborhoods just because we felt the market was holding well in these areas...we also couldn't make the same mistake 2x--both financially and mentally. One thing we learned quickly is that the RE agents serving these areas were very astute and wether by design or by coincidence help keep prices fairly stable.
Yes, many homes went down about 10% from LP but many also sold much closer to asking, if not higher. We negotiated our price down about 7%, but all in all it was not what we expected when we started my search. We don't regret the decision as we really love the home, schools and the neighborhood...and the kids are happy! Mind you after seeing my first tax bill I had to remind myself of the same 3 kids and why I moved them here... but I know that it's a place where we feel like we finally have come home--and that in itself is priceless.
Greap post and great advise. If you don't mind me asking..what city did you purchase your house?
If your child is an C student they will not become an A student when you move to the "best school system"
And, in fact, their grades may drop when they are immersed in a more competitive, more advanced school system.
I can tell you from my 35 years with the Woodbridge Twp school district that most students coming from out-of-state had to "play catch-up" to a great extent after entering our district. And, since Woodbridge is not in the same league as Westfield, or Glen Ridge, or even Edison, that gives you some idea of how difficult it can be for some kids (transferring from some states) to compete in NJ schools.
And, in case anyone is interested, the students who consistently had the most difficult time succeeding in our school were those who transferred from Louisiana.
Based on my experience, high school students transferring from Louisiana were essentially on the same educational level as those who came to us from Third-World countries--i.e., several years below grade-level.
Greap post and great advise. If you don't mind me asking..what city did you purchase your house?
We live in Glen Rock. The 'hood' experience was in Newburgh NY. And the school experience was Brooklyn and Manhattan public schools. Watching
'Waiting for Superman' was seriously reliving my life. Sad part is that for me, my school stories are from the 80s and here we are in 2012 and there are still so many underserved/poor performing schools ---especially in urban areas.
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