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Old 12-06-2021, 05:30 PM
 
3,950 posts, read 2,943,562 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angie682 View Post
Move to Utah. It's conservative, homogeneous, has lots of outdoor activities and the scenery is amazing! Texas is overrated. Utah schools are also rated significantly better than Texas schools.

They have a great local amusement park. It's not sweltering in the summer and you don't spend all day in line like at Six Flags. Lots of Tech and civil engineering jobs there. Great restaurants that are not chains due to all the tourists that go there to ski.

It's so funny people always think Texas is this conservative mecca. Unless you're living in the sticks it's really not like that in the metro areas.

Florida is so gross. I have no idea why anyone would ever want to live in that state.
What is Utah like regarding covid?
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Old 12-06-2021, 05:32 PM
 
3,950 posts, read 2,943,562 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honestjar5 View Post
Thank you for your input! At this point, we would certainly settle for libertarian. As far as budget, we would probably be looking for housing that is less than 600-700K. The commute is a good point. I do really hate commuting and would not want to spend more than 30 minutes each way in traffic.
You can get a very very nice house in one of the conservative parts of San Antonio in your price range easily. It is the cheapest out of the major Texas cities. Honestly you should be able to find something decent in every city. Well, maybe not Austin, but that would probably be the last place you want to live.
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Old 12-06-2021, 05:34 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChristieP View Post
The problem with DFW is that Dallas County is basically a liberal cesspool, and Tarrant County now leans liberal. Collin County has been conservative in the past, but with all of the incoming transplants, it’s hard to say how long that will last. Most of the jobs in DFW are in these three counties, and if you live outside them, you will have a much longer than 30 minute commute to work.

Travis, Bexar and Harris Counties are also blue now. So that eliminates the major metro areas.
I live in Bexar county and rarely encounter a liberal. I am out at bars all over town all the time, meeting girls for dates, etc. and almost every time politics comes up everybody is conservative. I would guess that Dallas is similar. If not more conservative?

Of course there are liberals in all these cities, even in small towns with 2,000 people, but compared to Seattle, I'm sure it will feel like Heaven.
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Old 12-06-2021, 06:03 PM
 
1,158 posts, read 949,916 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EDS_ View Post
1. I figured you might have been looking at something like US News. Big states with very big cities and let's be honest large minority populations are going to measure poorly compared to a small, very white state with few big cities and few very large inner city schools.

2. As you've noted you kids are well above average, why be concerned with statewide averages?

2.1. TX' much higher NMSF cutoff score is hard evidence that very top students in Texas are better educated than the same in Utah. For 2022 TX' NMSF cutoff is 220 roughly in line with Washington, California, New York, Mass and Virginia......Utah's 212 is roughly in line with Arkansas, Alabama, New Mexico and Kentucky.

2.2. Likely no one on CD is more committed to education than me, my wife as well. Both of our kids are 99th+ percentile academic performers.

4. Withers Elementary down the street offers a Two Way Dual Language Program focusing on English and Spanish, which given local metrics makes sense. Looking around a number of DISD schools offer similar.

4.1. With respect I have a hard time believing your Texas based G&T child wasn't exposed to WWII or The Holocaust. A nice young lady, 9th grade, across the street and down two houses attends WT White (DISD-comprehensive).....I know for a fact she wrote a paper about the Holocaust because I read it. Further, contextually certified Texas teachers must show tested proficiency vis a vis The Great Depression, The Holocaust and WWII specifically.

4.2. Your point about funding could not be more amiss. Per pupil TX funds K-12 ~+25% vs. Utah.

4.3. Nearly all of the recently failed school bond packages around here were earmarked for athletic facilities, notably at Allan HS which has one of the couple of nicest/most expensive HS football stadiums in The US already, and very expensive and narrow use fine arts buildings. Several packages earmarked for school building re-builds, upgrades and maintenance passed.

4.4. What nonsense about banning books?

Sorry for the typos and clumsy verbiage.
I don't want to hijack the OPs thread. I can speak for the public education my child has received in Tarrant County and it has been lacking and unimpressive. I feel she would have received a better education elsewhere.

National Merit Scholars represent the top 1% of students. They are not the norm or representative of what "average" students are learning in "regular" classes or schools in Texas. Many kids that qualify for NMSF attend private schools.

I have always believed that educational success results primarily from having a higher than average IQ and strong family involvement. Most students in Texas don't have a snowballs chance on a hot Texas day of ever qualifying for NMSF. Just.sitting in a classroom in Plano or Frisco is not going to magically create a NMSF.

I've lived in many different states and cities throughout Texas, DFW is hands down the most bland, boring place I've ever lived. I can't wait until my daughter finishes school so we can move! It is better than Florida though...
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Old 12-06-2021, 06:51 PM
 
19,519 posts, read 17,753,685 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Angie682 View Post
I don't want to hijack the OPs thread. I can speak for the public education my child has received in Tarrant County and it has been lacking and unimpressive. I feel she would have received a better education elsewhere.

National Merit Scholars represent the top 1% of students. They are not the norm or representative of what "average" students are learning in "regular" classes or schools in Texas. Many kids that qualify for NMSF attend private schools.

I have always believed that educational success results primarily from having a higher than average IQ and strong family involvement. Most students in Texas don't have a snowballs chance on a hot Texas day of ever qualifying for NMSF. Just.sitting in a classroom in Plano or Frisco is not going to magically create a NMSF.

I've lived in many different states and cities throughout Texas, DFW is hands down the most bland, boring place I've ever lived. I can't wait until my daughter finishes school so we can move! It is better than Florida though...
I don't want to hijack the OP's thread either but your responses seem emotional and quite frankly, in part, hard to believe on the merits.

As I stated above I simply don't believe your child was never exposed to The Holocaust or WWII in high school.

We've demonstrated your funding claim was somewhere between bogus and off the mark.

NMSF cutoff is limited to the top 1.25% of students. So no matter how you couch it the variance between Utah and Texas in this regard is significant. As you mentioned Plano PISD had 100 NMSFs in 2021....the state of Utah produced around 160 in 2019 - FWIIW. Could part of this be your family picked a less than great school district? Most kids not qualifying for NMSF status isn't the point.


https://www.pisd.edu/site/Default.as...exDataID=95097

https://www.sltrib.com/news/educatio...utah-students/

I'd agree IQ and parental involvement are key per educational attainment.

_____________

Ultimately you hate the area and that seems to be clouding the points you've made here.
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Old 12-06-2021, 07:13 PM
 
Location: Kaufman County, Texas
11,819 posts, read 26,685,219 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by supfromthesite View Post
I live in Bexar county and rarely encounter a liberal. I am out at bars all over town all the time, meeting girls for dates, etc. and almost every time politics comes up everybody is conservative. I would guess that Dallas is similar. If not more conservative?

Of course there are liberals in all these cities, even in small towns with 2,000 people, but compared to Seattle, I'm sure it will feel like Heaven.
In the 2020 presidential election, Bexar County went 58% for Biden. Dallas County was 65% for Biden.
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Old 12-06-2021, 07:18 PM
 
19,519 posts, read 17,753,685 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChristieP View Post
In the 2020 presidential election, Bexar County went 58% for Biden. Dallas County was 65% for Biden.
It'll be interesting to review similar numbers in '24.
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Old 12-06-2021, 07:34 PM
 
19,519 posts, read 17,753,685 times
Reputation: 17046
Quote:
Originally Posted by honestjar5 View Post
Cross posted in the FL forum.



My husband and I currently live in the Seattle area and while we love many things about it here, we are considering a move to either Texas or Florida. In terms of areas, we are looking at the Dallas area for TX (i have spent time in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio but never DFW) and either Orlando or Jacksonville for FL. Since we are not too familiar with either state, I’m posting this in the general state forum because we are open to other suggestions as well. I will begin with our general reason for moving and what we are hoping to find, and then follow with what specifically we are interested in in TX.

One of our primary reasons for wanting to move is that we are very conservative, and as we get closer to starting our family, we are finding it more and more important to us to live somewhere with lots of people that (hopefully) share and support our values, or (at least) do not openly mock and scorn our values. We have had a hard time making friends in Seattle because everyone here just assumes that we think like them, and they have no hesitation airing their contempt for people who think like we do. We want to get away from this and live somewhere where, at the very least, the more left-leaning folks know how to coexist with conservatives. We would also like to find a place where it looks like the population will be willing to move on from COVID at some point. While things are technically open here, there are still many restrictions in place, and the population in general is going above and beyond what is required. For instance, my husband and I have not been allowed into our offices for almost two years, and all of my attempts at finding social outlets involve masking and/or zoom meetings. We do not get the sense that anyone is looking to change this anytime soon, despite the population being highly vaccinated.

So we are mostly looking for somewhere a bit more level headed, but other important factors are:

-Cost of living (homes where we live start at around $1M), including taxes
-Friendly people— we want to know our neighbors
-Access to major airport— we love to travel but also our families are scattered all over
-Healthcare quality and availability (esp women’s healthcare)
-Outdoor recreation
-Weather
-Religious community- we are catholic and it would be nice to live amongst people who are openly Christian
-Safety
-Job opportunities (my husband will keep his job remotely but I am a civil engineer and will need a position in that field)
-Schools? (We are leaning toward homeschool but might take advantage of the public school system if it was pretty good)

Now, for TX specifically, we are drawn to:

-Lots of tech jobs should my husband lose his remote work position
-Good food
-Six flags (I am obsessed with roller coasters)
-Its central location to pretty much everywhere else in the country

What, in your opinions, are some things we should know about TX? Could we find what we are looking for in the DFW area? If not, where else would you suggest we look? How you do you think these areas rank as far as our criteria? If you have experience with both TX and FL, which do you think has the most of what we are looking for?

Thank you so much in advance!
Per Texas
COL is quite variable by location.......if you are highish earners TX overall tax burden can be a huge relief.
Friendly people....TX owns that.
Houston and DFW both have two excellent airports. SA a good one and Austin a good one but it's a pain to access.
The big cities have world class healthcare top to bottom. Dallas and Houston are both academic, research and clinical medicine hubs.
Outdoor recreation......could be an issue deepending upon what you like golf, fishing, hunting, boating etc. are big players.
Weather...we live in Dallas and I love the weather overall. It's blazing hot 3mos. per year and temperate mixed with a few cold days the rest of the year. I leave my boat, un-winterized on a lift all year and take my jet skis off the water from about Nov. 15 - March 1-15 or so and I golf year-round. That said many people who can't stand a little heat become summertime shut ins in TX. Consider all this carefully.
There are lots of Catholics, Catholic schools and Catholic Churches across TX. On that note you'll be fine.
Safety......variable by location. Fair Park Dallas or Hobby Area Houston.......not great choices.
Job ops.......spectacular.
Schools.....vary from among the best in the country to among the worst. It's all about location.
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Old 12-06-2021, 08:36 PM
 
1,085 posts, read 678,430 times
Reputation: 1864
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angie682 View Post
I don't want to hijack the OPs thread. I can speak for the public education my child has received in Tarrant County and it has been lacking and unimpressive. I feel she would have received a better education elsewhere.

National Merit Scholars represent the top 1% of students. They are not the norm or representative of what "average" students are learning in "regular" classes or schools in Texas. Many kids that qualify for NMSF attend private schools.

I have always believed that educational success results primarily from having a higher than average IQ and strong family involvement. Most students in Texas don't have a snowballs chance on a hot Texas day of ever qualifying for NMSF. Just.sitting in a classroom in Plano or Frisco is not going to magically create a NMSF.

I've lived in many different states and cities throughout Texas, DFW is hands down the most bland, boring place I've ever lived. I can't wait until my daughter finishes school so we can move! It is better than Florida though...
Zero recommendations have been for Tarrant county.
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Old 12-07-2021, 08:38 AM
 
21 posts, read 17,210 times
Reputation: 46
Quote:
Originally Posted by EDS_ View Post
Per Texas
COL is quite variable by location.......if you are highish earners TX overall tax burden can be a huge relief.
Friendly people....TX owns that.
Houston and DFW both have two excellent airports. SA a good one and Austin a good one but it's a pain to access.
The big cities have world class healthcare top to bottom. Dallas and Houston are both academic, research and clinical medicine hubs.
Outdoor recreation......could be an issue deepending upon what you like golf, fishing, hunting, boating etc. are big players.
Weather...we live in Dallas and I love the weather overall. It's blazing hot 3mos. per year and temperate mixed with a few cold days the rest of the year. I leave my boat, un-winterized on a lift all year and take my jet skis off the water from about Nov. 15 - March 1-15 or so and I golf year-round. That said many people who can't stand a little heat become summertime shut ins in TX. Consider all this carefully.
There are lots of Catholics, Catholic schools and Catholic Churches across TX. On that note you'll be fine.
Safety......variable by location. Fair Park Dallas or Hobby Area Houston.......not great choices.
Job ops.......spectacular.
Schools.....vary from among the best in the country to among the worst. It's all about location.
Thank you!
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