Should I relocate so my child can attend a better elementary school?
Where you live largely determines where your child is going to go to school. At least in urban areas, one of the main things that raises up housing prices is the quality of the schools in that attendance area. So parents are constantly making the decision: should I move and get my kid into a better school, or should I stay where I am and accept this school as it is? I would argue that we want the best school and the best teacher that we can have for our kids, and possibly more important than that, we want the best peer group that we can have for our kids. If you choose a neighborhood where you get a cuter house or a bigger house, but a worse school, you're making a decision that may not be best for your child. But you're also making the same decision that every other parent at that school has made. And so you may be putting your child into a peer group where the kids may not be doing homework, or the parents may not be enforcing discipline at school. So you may be putting your child into a culture that's less learning-focused and education-focused than you might want. Now, are there ways to attend schools that are not your attendance area school? Sure there are. But it's also a more stressful life. You have to always be on the ball to make sure that your child can stay in your work permit school, or your childcare permit school, or the magnet school that you've put him into. So if you want a less stressful educational process for your child, I would say the easiest bet to do that is to move into a neighborhood with a good school.
