What to do
We're happy with our house. We have few major projects left to do. We like the neighborhood which is conveniently located near an elementary school, parks, and my office. There are a lot of young families with children near our children's ages. And so of course we are starting to think about moving.
I blame my neighbor. We were outside when Oliver was playing with her children. She started talking about how they were looking at moving. When I asked why, she said that the nearby elementary school was good. But after that, the middle school and the high school were downright scary. There were several weapons violations at the middle school. With her older children hitting middle school age, they were looking for a smaller house in a better school district.
I talked to my wife about the conversation and we started doing some research. The school district fared badly in the last several years of state assessment testing especially at the middle school and high school levels. The racial statistics would make our children a tiny minority at the middle school (19%) and high school (9%) levels. If we went with public schools, we would likely be looking to switch before middle school either to a private school or a new school district.
We have started doing some prelimiary looking at the housing market in different school districts. Assuming our financial situation remains the same, we could look at moving into a better school district. We've put enough equity into the house that we could afford the same size house in a better school district. We'd be paying a lot more in property taxes and would basically be paying our mortgage off longer, but we could enroll the kids in the public schools and feel confident in the education that they might receive.
But then again, this is St. Louis. So there are a ton of different private schools in which we could enroll the kids. In essence, we would more or less transfer the amount of money that we spend in day care and mortgage costs and put that towards education costs. We're still left with the quandary of how to pay for college, but that becomes a problem for another day.
At this point, I'm more inclined to look at moving. We have a good amount of equity built up in the house that would enable us to move laterally. That said, we don't have to make the decision soon. But that day is coming. And at some point, we will have to figure out what to do.
I blame my neighbor. We were outside when Oliver was playing with her children. She started talking about how they were looking at moving. When I asked why, she said that the nearby elementary school was good. But after that, the middle school and the high school were downright scary. There were several weapons violations at the middle school. With her older children hitting middle school age, they were looking for a smaller house in a better school district.
I talked to my wife about the conversation and we started doing some research. The school district fared badly in the last several years of state assessment testing especially at the middle school and high school levels. The racial statistics would make our children a tiny minority at the middle school (19%) and high school (9%) levels. If we went with public schools, we would likely be looking to switch before middle school either to a private school or a new school district.
We have started doing some prelimiary looking at the housing market in different school districts. Assuming our financial situation remains the same, we could look at moving into a better school district. We've put enough equity into the house that we could afford the same size house in a better school district. We'd be paying a lot more in property taxes and would basically be paying our mortgage off longer, but we could enroll the kids in the public schools and feel confident in the education that they might receive.
But then again, this is St. Louis. So there are a ton of different private schools in which we could enroll the kids. In essence, we would more or less transfer the amount of money that we spend in day care and mortgage costs and put that towards education costs. We're still left with the quandary of how to pay for college, but that becomes a problem for another day.
At this point, I'm more inclined to look at moving. We have a good amount of equity built up in the house that would enable us to move laterally. That said, we don't have to make the decision soon. But that day is coming. And at some point, we will have to figure out what to do.
posted by mypetrock at 1:44 PM
3 Comments:
I had a coworker once make a funny comment about paying for private school and eventually college: he claimed that he wasn't saving for college--he was practicing. I think my parent's philosophy was to pray for scholarships. Myself, I subscribe to the "looking for a winning lottery ticket laying on the ground" method....
My siblings and I went through the public school system in Mount Vernon, NY. The Honors students had access to some of the better teachers in the area - we had plenty of kids from the Bronx "hopping the border" to get a better education.
Unfortunately, things weren't all rosy - our parents were blissfully unaware of the danger in the hallways or we might have been pulled out.
In retrospect, I'm glad I went through the public schools. Especially, since I got some good teachers.
I don't know, STL has a bad reputation as far as public school education quality - something we are definitely pondering for the future.
WRT college - you might look into the Missouri 529 or MO$T.
Move to Webster... you know you want to.
We moved to the county so we'd have good public schools, and then I still want to put the kids in The College School. Screw college, they can pay for that themselves -- they can't put themselves through elementary school.
Post a Comment
<< Home