Living in Urban areas = City Schooling?!

[The 585]

No kids yet here, but when I do have them I'd ideally like to be living in a trendy urban area with high walkability. However, it seems that most densely populated urban areas on the east coast have terrible public schools.

Those of you who live in cities rather than suburbs, what do you do for schooling? Private/home schooling, or suck it up and deal with public city schools?

[seattlecyclone]

There are lots of great public schools within the Seattle city limits. We plan to use one of them when our little one is old enough.

Do take school ratings with a grain of salt. In many cases the ratings are mostly a function of the socioeconomic status of the families whose kids go there. If most of the well-to-do people decide to avail themselves of the private option, the public schools are left with a disproportionate number of kids whose parents were unable to provide the same kind of academic head start to their kids as you might find in a wealthier school. It doesn't necessarily mean that a motivated student wouldn't be able to thrive there.

[Letj]

No kids yet here, but when I do have them I'd ideally like to be living in a trendy urban area with high walkability. However, it seems that most densely populated urban areas on the east coast have terrible public schools.

Those of you who live in cities rather than suburbs, what do you do for schooling? Private/home schooling, or suck it up and deal with public city schools?

I live in an urban area and I had to buy in an expensive part of the city to get a high performing elementary school and then private after that. The schools in urban areas are not so much the problem but more so the socio economic situations in the surrounding community. The more poverty and low levels of education in the area, the more performance and decipline issues the school would have.

[Aelias]

Do take school ratings with a grain of salt. In many cases the ratings are mostly a function of the socioeconomic status of the families whose kids go there. If most of the well-to-do people decide to avail themselves of the private option, the public schools are left with a disproportionate number of kids whose parents were unable to provide the same kind of academic head start to their kids as you might find in a wealthier school. It doesn't necessarily mean that a motivated student wouldn't be able to thrive there.

Totally agree with this.  We live in an urban area, and the ratings of the elementary schools within the district vary widely neighborhood to neighborhood, based largely on the socioeconomic make-up of the neighborhood.  The high school (which serves the whole district) seems to have a lot of opportunities for the kids who want to pursue them.

Our oldest will start kindergarten in a year.  We're going to submit our preferences for some of the higher performing elementary schools, but understand we may not get that. If we don't,  we will probably try out the public kindergarten and see how it goes.  I feel like the enrichment he will get at home from two educated, engaged parents will be enough.  I also put value in his attending a school with racial and economic diversity.  I want him to grow up understanding that not everybody's life looks like his.

That being said, if the public schools don't work out, public charters schools and private school are options for us.  Not ideal, but still options. I might feel differently if I knew I couldn't afford to send my kid to private school.

[steviesterno]

we went through the same process when we wanted to buy a house. this was 2 years before we were thinking about kids, but we decided to buy in the better (9/10 and nationally well ranked) district. Yes it means we spent a little extra on the house, about $25k or 10% in our case. But living closer would have meant private school. so $1000/month x 12 months x maybe 6 years was more than the extra cost of nice neighborhood schools. As a family that really values education it seemed worth it.

Additionally, even if you don't have kids or care about school ratings, there's a good chance the people that are going to buy your house will. So that 25k essentially vanished when our town shot up in value and the town with bad schools didn't.

[Cranky]

School lasts 6.5 hours/day, and that includes art, recess, and lunch. Pick a school where people aren't being horrible - the teachers look happy, the principal is energetic, and kids aren't beating on one another. Your kids will be *fine*, because a highly rated school mostly measures the family income of the kids who attend that school.

I say that as a teacher, and as a mom who sent her kids to not so "great" public schools. They were fine, academically, and my kids learned lessons that you can't buy.

[SimpleCycle]

+1 to Cranky.

We'll be sending our littles to "inner city" public schools.  Our district has a lottery to get into schools that are not your neighborhood school and we'll probably do that, but our neighborhood school is poorly rated (on Great Schools, which basically ranks student SES) but seems to have its shit together.  We plan to visit and get to know our neighborhood school before we make a decision.

[mommad]

We live in a very pricey coastal city. One of the ways I justified living here was that there were excellent public schools (and terrible ones). I bought the least expensive house attached to the best nearby schools. Most urban areas have a mix of good and bad schools. I think teachers can be far superior in schools where kids have socioeconomic disadvantages. In San Fran there a quite a few 10/10 great schools available for elem.  fewer for middle. And just a few for high school. Most high schools have a college track though that send kids to top tier UC's.  There is a lottery system.  Im prepared to send my kid to private if she needs it but I'd rather her thrive in a good public school. One caveat is that friends matter for kids. If the friends aren't going anywhere then private is more pressing.

[zhelud]

We live in a densely populated "inner suburb" and send our kids to public schools.  Our kids' elementary school was about half English language learners, half free lunch kids (lots of overlap for those categories) and it was a wonderful school- even though the test scores were not so great.  My advice- don't just look at some online report of  test scores when choosing a school. Instead, talk to your neighbors, to other parents, etc. Visit the school, talk to teachers and principal. It's worthwhile to do this kind of in-person research.

[azu612]

I also struggle with this question.  While it's true that the parents are the most important influence for a child's education, the atmosphere of the school and a child's peers will also impact things.  I suppose if you enroll your kid in the public school and it doesn't seem like it's working out, you could always look into other options at that point.

[MayDay]

My daughter would thrive anywhere, even in a "bad" school.

My son has special needs and the reality is that rich school = lots of money for therapy.

I hate being in rich schools. No diversity, drug problems, etc.

[Trifle]

My daughter would thrive anywhere, even in a "bad" school.

My son has special needs and the reality is that rich school = lots of money for therapy.

I hate being in rich schools. No diversity, drug problems, etc.

We are the same -- our daughter would do fine anywhere, but our son has special needs.  We struggled even with a "good" city school, then in absolute desperation we pulled him out of second grade to homeschool him.  Surprise!  The homeschooling worked great, and then DD asked if she could homeschool too.  I think it's important to just keep an open mind about the schools, try to work with the teachers/administration through difficulties, and realize that there are many options if it doesn't work out.