Schools are absolutely and without question a big factor in education success. That is of course not to say that family and the individual are not factors. I t

Schools are absolutely and without question a big factor in education success. That is of course not to say that family and the individual are not factors. I think there is a second related question as well: "Is it 'worth it' to move to a better school district?" When we had children, we moved from a low performing district to a high performing district. In the old district taxes were low and 1 in 30 children who graduated went on to a four year college or university. That was fine as we liked the low taxes and did not have kids. In the new district, our school taxes are 3x what they were in the old district, but now the expectation is that every child is going to go onto a 4 year program in higher ed. The school has art, music classes and they are not teaching to the test. There is all around high expectations and active instructional intervention. Things that our the old system was not able to do. For us, this was "worth it" in the sense that we have the resources and want to spend them in a way to try to maximize the opportunities for our kids. I have not seen that documentary you speak of, but I can imagine it talks about the rush/flood of parents like me to "good/great" school districts and how that drives up demand for housing and increases costs for the community.