Ah, okay, I understand.
No, I would absolutely not pull all of my kids out of the public school system for those reasons. Lagging academics in the middle school years is very easy to compensate for at home.
It doesn't sound like there is any other reason to do something so extreme. Being exposed to a multicultural environment and kids if different socioeconomic backgrounds sounds like a very good thing to me, and a nearly impossible experience to simulate otherwise if you live in an upper middle class community.
I happen to live in a crime heavy, poor neighbourhood, and in the long and storied history of sex workers and gang members roving our streets, not a single instance of a kid being in danger in school has ever, ever occured. Middle school kids don't leave school property, so that's a non issue.
Plus seeing a neighbourhood like that regularly would again be a great cultural exposure. I always find it tragic when people can't tell the difference between a poor area and an area that is legitimately dangerous to them.
My profession is very highly paid, I'm the only one in my city that I know of that chooses to live in the sketchy neighbourhood I do. Most of my colleagues live in extremely high end areas and look horrified when I tell them where I live. I've had colleagues refuse to come to my house, or be incredibly nervous about their own safety when they do. Honestly, it's fucking embarrassing to watch.
So make sure you are being realistic about actual risk to your children's safety and not just embarrassingly poor-phobic.
Now, none of that is to say that it's a given that your kids will thrive in that middle school. They might not, but if they're really struggling, like if they start being heavily bullied, or whatever, then you can always pull *that kid* out at that point.
The same could happen though at a private school. Are you under the impression that a school with higher academic standards and wealthier kids is going to be a place that they're *less* likely to get bullied or be exposed to drugs???
Because that is NOT the case my friend. I went straight from my shitty middle school, where I thrived just fine btw, to an elite high school. It was public, but had to be tested into, and was more elite than the private schools, so most of the kids were coming from the private school system.
Well, I didn't see hard drugs in school until I met the rich kids. I also didn't see such flagrant wealth-based hierarchy bullying until then either. Sure, there was bullying in my middle school, but it followed kind of natural Lord Of The Flies rule of order. With the rich kids, the leader of the pack could be a total sociopath who was horrible to everyone, just because of his dad's job title.
You could be made fun of for your dream car not being good enough. It was pretty absurd.
That said, I thrived in both environments. I found my particular pack of loving, caring friends, did really well in my classes, got along with my teachers, and along the way was exposed to many different types of people, which has served me well in my life.
I probably would have also done very well in private school. I was pretty naturally good at avoiding bullies, making good quality friends, and doing well in class.
My parents were also took a keen interest in my schooling, offered supplementation when needed, and always had their finger on the pulse of whether or not I was thriving.
Some kids will do well literally anywhere they go. Some kids will really benefit from a multicultural environment that's less competitive, some kids will do well in the more overbearing environment of private school.
Pulling ALL of your kids out of what sounds like a very good school system to avoid a multicultural, poorer school, sounds very reactionary and poor-phobic to me, and downright extreme.
As I said before, if it's academics that's the main issue, you can easily compensate for that. Some of those rich friends I have send their kids to a private French school. It's known for having really poor math, and of course no English. So their kids have extra tutoring to compensate for the academic weakness of the very expensive school.
Private school is NOT a panacea. You seem to think the choice is between potentially putting your kids at risk, or investing in securing them an excellent outcome. But that is SO not the case.
You have no way of knowing if each of your particular kids will have a positive experience at each of the private schools you are looking at sending them to.
A good school experience is not something you can just buy. The risks to your kids in the private system are just as significant as they are in a not so great public middle school.
If it were me? No question I would send my kids to a multicultural middle school and see if they thrive first. You can't buy that kind of valuable cultural experience.