[twiggy]

Assets and Opportunity Scorecard (http://www.cfed.org/focus.m?parentid=31&siteid=2471&id=2476 - broken link)
I'm from AZ and we had this on our forum. I came over here to check out what a "A" state was like. I wonder if this could be because your liberals. lol
Anyway, congrats! I envy your grade!

[Nelly Nomad]

Holy cow! Only one state earned Straight A's across the board, and that state is... Vermont! Our family is expecting to relocate to Vermont within the next few months. This is very encouraging!

Thank you for sharing, Twiggy!

[twiggy]

I know!! I don't see it on the thread though. I was wondering if people had a little easier time here, but it doesn't seem like it. Like Arizona, the weather seems tough. Extreme weather is trying but I was thinking I could deal with it for a state that had so much. I deal with summers in Arizona and we recieved a "F". lol
Well, hopefully someone who lives here will weigh in on the subject. I'm curious if it's enough to even be aware of, or maybe not. I would definatly be a "flatlander" ha ha, I would be a "underlander", I've never lived in the snow. lol Believe it or not you get just as sick of all the sunshine. I know that sounds ridiclous. he he

[Mary77]

Thank you for posting that link. I'm suddenly starting to feel a lot better about living in Vermont. We have been trying to move to TN for a few months now, but after seeing the grade they received in Education, I'm beginning to have second thoughts.

[mustmove]

I don't buy it. A's for financial security and business development? Have these people ever been to VT. The A for education can be based on $$$ spent per kid, VT is number 1 for spending money on schools. But it definitely isn't based on test scores or secondary education attainment. Health care- again just about everybody is covered but new doctors, dentists and pharmacists aren't moving here in part because of the semi-socialized medicine. VT made it so mammograms can't cost more than 20 or 30 dollars sounds great right? What hospital in their right mind would now buy a new mammogram machine? I do believe we do well on homeownership my guess is partly that homes here are cheap(to buy into at least) if you've lived and worked elsewhere in the Northeast. Plus a lot of folks build their own houses on family land which saves a bundle and helps with lowering the cost of ownership. TX which is economically booming got a horrible rating if you click on the states they have little blurbs about each one. Funny thing is TX did well on liberal measures such minority owned businesses and they still lambasted the state. I suspect bias a bit of bias either way it doesn't reflect my personal experience of living here.

[flu189]

To base decisions on where to move on rankings, surveys, ratings is indeed a very risky proposition, be it Vermont or any other state. I have lived in and visited enough states experiencing both urban and rural life and have found many claims to be far from reality. Such surveys can be a good starting point to do more in depth research on criterea which is important to an individual.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by flu189

To base decisions on where to move on rankings, surveys, ratings is indeed a very risky proposition, be it Vermont or any other state. I have lived in and visited enough states experiencing both urban and rural life and have found many claims to be far from reality. Such surveys can be a good starting point to do more in depth research on criterea which is important to an individual.

Good point. We have friends who moved to Westchase, Florida(suburb of Tampa) from Barre, Vermont and the economic opportunities as well as the educational system(Florida didn't get a great score) are much better than those they had in Barre. To look at a rating and base a move on that is crazy. Every state has pockets of very nice areas to live in as well as not so nice places to live(Vermont included). Vermont is a unique state. The majority of the population is surrounding the Burlington area while a large portion of the rest of the state is rural. When I see these rankings done, I get the impression they are referring to Burlington.

[twiggy]

Ha ha, well, I wasn't planning on a move to Vermont. Although seems very beautiful, just a little slow for me. I was just wanting to see what you were talking about on this thread since you are second from Hawaii for living the longest and tops on 2 lists for having everything. I get the "some areas better than others" thing, I think that is everywhere.

Of course on our thread everyone thinks this stat. is crazy. Phoenix is fabulous. It's a lie, they are wrong. Here a lot of you think it's crazy and a lie too. But that Vermont isn't great enough to get a A. ha ha I think people just naturally think the opposite of what there labeled good or bad. We don't like it. Well, nice visiting ya, hope your rating stays high for those people who buy these statistic thingy's. lol

[Nelly Nomad]

I hope it wasn't me who gave you the impression our decision to move to VT was based on the survey! Our plans had been started well before this. I was merely saying how nice it was to see something so overwhelmingly positive (who doesn't like Straight A's?).

Having spent time doing research, we think we have a pretty realistic idea of what Vermont is like. At least as realistic as one can have without actually living there. We're well aware that Vermont has warts. What state doesn't? Even if a completely wide-eyed innocent were to think any state was a utopia, one hour on the C-D boards would straighten them out right quick. C-D people aren't shy about "telling it like it is" .

We're looking forward to our relocation (still have to get my rear in gear and start some serious house-hunting ). And Twiggy's data was fun to read. Thanks, again, Twiggy!

[Mary77]

Nelly Nomad-

What part of Vermont are you planning to relocate to? What state are you comming from?