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Schools actually aren't bad in SF, they're uneven. Take a look at greatschools.net and filter by public school. SF has an unusually large number of schools ra

by geebee 13y ago

Schools actually aren't bad in SF, they're uneven. Take a look at greatschools.net and filter by public school. SF has an unusually large number of schools rated "10" - keep in mind, anything over 7 is good by California standards (not exactly a great standard, but that is the basis for comparison to the wealthy burbs). This is based on adjusted API (test) scores, which don't tell the whole story about a school, of course. In SF, school assignment is by lottery rather than by residence, which drives wealthy people nuts. I get it, if you live in a nice neighborhood across the street from a good school, and the city tells you you have to drive somewhere else, that'll piss you off - and if you can convert a high mortgage payment into access to a public school that the poor don't get in the suburbs, you may very well up and leave. Of course, if you live in a crappy neighborhood across the street from a failing school, you might not mind the lottery so much. SFUSD is moving to a more district residence model, though it won't be the overwhelming factor.

SomeCallMeTim 13y ago
>Schools actually aren't bad in SF, they're uneven. but >In SF, school assignment is by lottery rather than by residence Makes that irrelevant to me. Not just because I can't "buy" a good school, but because I can't deterministically choose a school. I wouldn't live in SF with kids that I intended to send to school for that reason alone. >which drives wealthy people nuts And worse than irrelevant: It's not just the wealthy people, but the people who value the ability to walk to school, which I do. Aside from not wasting gas, it gives kids an early sense of independence to be able to get to school on their own power. Which brings up a related point: I feel it's safer here (Colorado) than in San Francisco, or in any of the points in the Bay Area with less than $1M houses. And I'm not saying that because of race: I think that the income disparity drives more people to anger. Everyone is just more mellow here. And California's "10" or not, I went to at least one 10 when I lived there (grew up there and lived there until about 8 years ago). The "good" schools I referred to were 10s. But I'm pretty sure the schools in Colorado are just better, based on what I know about the top schools here, including interactions with my own kids and their friends, as well as other metrics. That said, I've come to believe that most schools are broken (or at least irrelevant [1]), but that's a completely orthogonal point. [1] http://is.gd/edu_irr http://is.gd/edu_irr

by geebee 13y ago

SomeCallMeTim 13y ago

>Schools actually aren't bad in SF, they're uneven. but >In SF, school assignment is by lottery rather than by residence Makes that irrelevant to me. Not just because I can't "buy" a good school, but because I can't deterministically choose a school. I wouldn't live in SF with kids that I intended to send to school for that reason alone. >which drives wealthy people nuts And worse than irrelevant: It's not just the wealthy people, but the people who value the ability to walk to school, which I do. Aside from not wasting gas, it gives kids an early sense of independence to be able to get to school on their own power. Which brings up a related point: I feel it's safer here (Colorado) than in San Francisco, or in any of the points in the Bay Area with less than $1M houses. And I'm not saying that because of race: I think that the income disparity drives more people to anger. Everyone is just more mellow here. And California's "10" or not, I went to at least one 10 when I lived there (grew up there and lived there until about 8 years ago). The "good" schools I referred to were 10s. But I'm pretty sure the schools in Colorado are just better, based on what I know about the top schools here, including interactions with my own kids and their friends, as well as other metrics. That said, I've come to believe that most schools are broken (or at least irrelevant [1]), but that's a completely orthogonal point. [1] http://is.gd/edu_irr http://is.gd/edu_irr