Relocation; Tampa Fl vs Oklahoma City, OK (real estate, law school)

[Rtm808]

Airline worker from dfw area looking to relocate. Looks like its down to Oklahoma City or Tampa. But just can’t decide. Thoughts? Suggestions? Which would you choose and why? Looking for better cost of living, decent schools and state with conservative values

[TBMorgan]

No conservative here. Schools stink. Cost of living is okay. Not sure what OKC"s cost is in comparison. Search this forum about schools. Experts here continuously slam the school system.

[Rtm808]

Originally Posted by TBMorgan

No conservative here. Schools stink. Cost of living is okay. Not sure what OKC"s cost is in comparison. Search this forum about schools. Experts here continuously slam the school system.

Schools seem to be getting slammed everywhere. Oklahoma schools seem to be taking the bigger black eye at the moment anyways.

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by Rtm808

Schools seem to be getting slammed everywhere. Oklahoma schools seem to be taking the bigger black eye at the moment anyways.

Public schools in VA, MD, MASS. don't get slammed. They are celebrated.
Since you said you are looking only for "decent" schools, I take that to mean you are OK with average schools. So you should be fine in Tampa Bay! We definitely have better weather but we don't have better barbecue! Oklahoma is more conservative than Florida tho so that's a win for OK. Not sure what kind of airline worker you are but OK is more centrally located, it takes forever to get to the West Coast from Tampa. Tampa is also very touristy. Oklahoma is not.

[MortonR]

I have a good friend of many years who has kids that originally lived on OKC and now lives in Nowata, a rural town in the NE of the state. He’s considered relocation here several times and we’ve spoken about it at length.

Every time we go through this exercise he ends up staying in OK.

Schools are no better there than here. They’re both sub-par no matter how you judge them.

Cost of living there is cheaper. Land/real estate (even in urban/suburban) areas is cheaper.

Definitely far more conservative in OK than Florida, especially the Tampa area, which is more “blue” than “red”.

Stay in OK.

RM

[NJK35]

Neither state has great schools, Tampa may be a little locally more liberal but republicans/conservatives run the state. For me, I couldn't imagine living in OKC, to me it seems like a city in the middle of a barren state with a lot of tornadoes. I would choose Tampa because you live in a place many people vacation to, beaches, theme parks, water sports, and a decent (relatively speaking) food scene. Cost of living I would imagine OKC is cheaper, but you get what you pay for. The Tampa Bay area has quite a few conservative suburb/rural areas around it if you want a more localized conservative value area.

[engineman]

Our kids grew up here with many fun days at the beach and in our small sailboat. They both attended Florida State U. Son went on to Stetson Law school, daughter earned CPA at USF. Both are prosperous today.
On summer vacations we enjoyed camping in the Smokey Mountains of NC &TN.

Have only driven through OK city on the Interstate.

[TBMorgan]

Originally Posted by engineman

Our kids grew up here with many fun days at the beach and in our small sailboat. They both attended Florida State U. Son went on to Stetson Law school, daughter earned CPA at USF. Both are prosperous today.
On summer vacations we enjoyed camping in the Smokey Mountains of NC &TN.

Have only driven through OK city on the Interstate.

That's what I live about the TB area - day's travel to areas worth visiting....not so sure about OKC.