Best States to Raise a Family

[Owen Lucas]

It is likely that private schools, even religious ones, will be allowed to accept federal / state money and will become the dominant education system of choice. Public schools will end up being a containment chamber for unruly children. Basically a daycare / free lunch distributor with TSA type security.

Well funded private (edit) schools are the way to go, it prevents indoctrination, or at least give you choice in what indoctrination you want. Politicized school boards will become irrelevant and our children will not have to worry about bathroom, sports, or social issues plaguing many districts.

 

[PandaBear]

The best place to raise YOUR family is the place YOU can make a living and support YOUR family comfortably with good influence to YOUR family.

It really depends on what works for YOU, not others, especially the "good influence" part can vary widely on what YOU and I want.

 

[2005jettatdi]

When it comes to raising a family, the state does not matter, the home does.

 

[PandaBear]

Map probably doesn't apply a lot of weight to cost of living. Lots of great places to live are unaffordable, so people are forced to compromise. We don't know the qualifications of the author so like said above it's a fluff piece.

I have never in my life find a "good place to live for everyone" that's affordable to everyone. When it is good for everyone the price usually goes up and it is not for everyone, or if the prices go down the people who aren't the best influence will move in. These kinds of surveys are usually oxymoron to me.

 

[Nessism1]

When it comes to raising a family, the state does not matter, the home does.

No. The neighborhood and city/town is what's important.

 

[PandaBear]

It is likely that private schools, even religious ones, will be allowed to accept federal / state money and will become the dominant education system of choice. Public schools will end up being a containment chamber for unruly children. Basically a daycare / free lunch distributor with TSA type security.

Well funded private (edit) schools are the way to go, it prevents indoctrination, or at least give you choice in what indoctrination you want. Politicized school boards will become irrelevant and our children will not have to worry about bathroom, sports, or social issues plaguing many districts.

I have attended both public and private schools when I grew up here. 2 public 1 private, and my kids currently attend public school. I can tell you that the good and bad schools in both public and private varies widely. The good public schools and good private schools are better than the bad public schools and bad private schools.

It is not the funding. My school district has multiple schools and the same funding, same teachers (in rotation), same curriculum, same policy, produce very different school ratings and students outcome. It is the parents of each school within the district (off different school assignment line), that leads to this outcome.

The parents make the school, and the parents vote with their wallets where they want to live, and that tends to correlate to the school ratings and students grades. The affordability of housing reflect this.

You can't outsource parenting and blame the school for everything. If you don't like something the school teaches you have every right to do the adjustment at home to your kids. We are all adults and we all do what adults do and take responsibilities of our own kids, including moving for better schools, or pay attention in raising our own kids.

 

[SC Maintenance]

It is likely that private schools, even religious ones, will be allowed to accept federal / state money and will become the dominant education system of choice. Public schools will end up being a containment chamber for unruly children. Basically a daycare / free lunch distributor with TSA type security.

Well funded private (edit) schools are the way to go, it prevents indoctrination, or at least give you choice in what indoctrination you want. Politicized school boards will become irrelevant and our children will not have to worry about bathroom, sports, or social issues plaguing many districts.

The issue with public schools is not the school - its that the judges continually send the troublemakers back to the schools even when expelled, because its a "right". I know a 16 year old that physically assaulted a female teacher - judge sent him back.

Also, "no child left behind" is really "all children will be mediocre". Sorry, but there are smart kids, and not so smart kids, no matter what the lawmakers will it to be.

I am a believer in public schools. I am a product of them, as are my kids. They have unfortunately been ruined. Let the public schools follow the same rules as the private ones, and they will be just as good. Maybe better?

 

[Pew]

The issue with public schools is not the school - its that the judges continually send the troublemakers back to the schools even when expelled, because its a "right". I know a 16 year old that physically assaulted a female teacher - judge sent him back.

Also, "no child left behind" is really "all children will be mediocre". Sorry, but there are smart kids, and not so smart kids, no matter what the lawmakers will it to be.

I am a believer in public schools. I am a product of them, as are my kids. They have unfortunately been ruined. Let the public schools follow the same rules as the private ones, and they will be just as good. Maybe better?

NCLB pretty much screwed over the public schooling system. I'm a firm believer in a strong public schooling system. Everyone benefits from it.

 

[Nessism1]

The issue with public schools is not the school - its that the judges continually send the troublemakers back to the schools even when expelled, because its a "right". I know a 16 year old that physically assaulted a female teacher - judge sent him back.

Also, "no child left behind" is really "all children will be mediocre". Sorry, but there are smart kids, and not so smart kids, no matter what the lawmakers will it to be.

I am a believer in public schools. I am a product of them, as are my kids. They have unfortunately been ruined. Let the public schools follow the same rules as the private ones, and they will be just as good. Maybe better?

Slightly different view...

I think that in most cases, the schools are fine. Even under performing schools. The teachers aren't "bad", nor are the administrators. The problem is the parents of the kids being sent to school. Some parents work with their kids every night, making sure they do their homework, and others don't give a $hit. Maybe because they don't know enough to help the kids with their homework?

Asian parents are famous for pressuring their kids to go good in school. And they often do well. Joke in Calif, the A in UCLA stands for Asian. That's because the asian parents push their kids, and they learn, and get good test scores, thus they get admitted to the better schools, like UCLA.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

When it comes to finding a good place to live, particularly when kids are involved, the devil's in the details. For example, I live in So. Calif now, and from town to town, some cities have good schools, and a safe environment, and others don't. You cannot judge the situation based on "states". There are even some cities which combine their school districts, which means that there is consistency in the curriculum and spending, but the test scores are drastically different, depending on the specific location (city), because some parents care about education, and others don't.

I had a job assignment in Ohio in the 1990's, and I started my family there. I bought a house in a town with good schools, and my kids were so happy there. It was safe in a way that So. Calif. will never be (anymore). No fences in the back yards in the housing development we lived in, so the kids were allowed to roam free. My vote goes to finding an environment like this, plus a town with good school testing scores. Again, just down the road may be different, so hunt out your little pocket of the world, and put down roots.

Same here. California needs it's own map. Its way too big. Some spots are great, others I won't even visit. The state really should be broken up to be manageable.

 

[shortyb]

The issue with public schools is not the school - its that the judges continually send the troublemakers back to the schools even when expelled, because its a "right". I know a 16 year old that physically assaulted a female teacher - judge sent him back.

Also, "no child left behind" is really "all children will be mediocre". Sorry, but there are smart kids, and not so smart kids, no matter what the lawmakers will it to be.

I am a believer in public schools. I am a product of them, as are my kids. They have unfortunately been ruined. Let the public schools follow the same rules as the private ones, and they will be just as good. Maybe better?

Yep. And don't forget that stupid education philosophy in SC called "Common Core" .

 

[SC Maintenance]

Yep. And don't forget that stupid education philosophy in SC called "Common Core" .

NCLB became "common core". Its not just a SC thing. https://www.findlaw.com/education/c...ding/no-child-left-behind-vs-common-core.html

 

[CKN]

No. The neighborhood and city/town is what's important.

Yep-It's not like the new religious leader for the one of the largest of the world's faith is from South Chicago or something.......

 

[Pew]

Yep-It's not like the new religious leader for the one of the largest of the world's faith is from South Chicago or something.......

New Pope is gonna be handing out pizza slices and rc cola as the flesh and blood.

 

[ripcord]

The best state to raise kids in is the state of matrimony.

 

[IndyIan]

Yeah, for you as an individual, you need to look at the community, and the specific school. Some states have more good ones than others, but that's for each State to figure out and solve.
In Ontario and most of Canada, we fund public schools through the province(state) so every school gets the same funding per student, but "extras" like playground equipment aren't funded at all, so individual schools and school boards pay for that. So you do see some extra "extras" in wealthy areas, but the teachers there are paid the same as in the whole province.
We do have a publicly funded Catholic school system in parallel, which is kind of a waste of money on paper, but it also provides some competition for both school boards to maintain high standards, as you don't really have to be very catholic to attend the catholic schools, and often parents will pick the better elementary school, and then switch boards to the better secondary school in the area.
Anyways, there isn't as much variance in the quality of the school boards here, due to equal funding.

My wife is a teacher which is a decently paid profession still, but there seems to be a growing subset of parents who don't respect teachers, but expect the teachers to be the only responsible adult their child has to learn from? Social media sure isn't helping those folks be good parents, and they seem to have no grasp of reality, just believe whatever baseless anti-government stuff comes up on their feed, and somehow knowledge and teachers are the "enemy"...

 

[wings&wheels]

Precisely, which is why all such articles are clickbaity garbage for the most part. if MA was the best place to raise a family, why would it be losing population? Which is more credible, a clickbait article or thousands of people voting with their feet?

Click bait, but has a solid foundation.

Folks leave near or at retirement age and to some extent with the availability of remote work.

Speaking in generalities, but MA has great schools both primary, secondary, public and private, availability of quality healthcare and a very robust and innovative economy and the related high cost of living will result in a somewhat transient population where a significant number of folks move in to seek the benefit then leave when appropriate, replaced by others doing the same. Edds and flows a bit. The numbers in the referenced study are also impacted by the local demographics where a lot of participants in the rise of the local tech industry from the 80's through 2000's, a population 'bubble', are retiring and heading to warmer and more tax friendly climates. But they will be replaced.

I find Massachusetts to be expensive and aggravating for reasons I won't and can't get into here, but it is a generally a great place to raise a family...then a great place to spend <180 days a year! Thats our plan.

 

[2002 Maxima SE]

When it comes to finding a good place to live, particularly when kids are involved, the devil's in the details. For example, I live in So. Calif now, and from town to town, some cities have good schools, and a safe environment, and others don't. You cannot judge the situation based on "states". There are even some cities which combine their school districts, which means that there is consistency in the curriculum and spending, but the test scores are drastically different, depending on the specific location (city), because some parents care about education, and others don't.

I had a job assignment in Ohio in the 1990's, and I started my family there. I bought a house in a town with good schools, and my kids were so happy there. It was safe in a way that So. Calif. will never be (anymore). No fences in the back yards in the housing development we lived in, so the kids were allowed to roam free. My vote goes to finding an environment like this, plus a town with good school testing scores. Again, just down the road may be different, so hunt out your little pocket of the world, and put down roots.

We moved out of Raleigh, NC for similar reasons mentioned in this thread (declining schools, overpopulation with poor infrastructure, increasing crime). We were there 20 years and it was a choice of moving outside Raleigh or out of state. We chose a small town in Tn. One thing to consider is home school over finding a good school system as part of a complete analysis of a future place to live. Taking school out of the equation opened up additional options for our move.

 

[GON]

The majority of crime is in the city/inner City suburbs and is under the national average except for murders. You're extremely wrong about the school curriculum too, no idea where you heard that from.

I spent two years as a assistant professor at UIC. One of my job requirements was to visit public schools and discuss how to apply for college. This is where I learned that reading, writing, and math were not part of the core curriculm at Illinois public schools.

Additionally, I am very aware and fluent of crime of all natures across the US. Every person in cook county, and the collar counties of cook are subject to crime at a level significantly more that the national average. Even residents of very well to do areas like Lake Forest are subject to crime at a much higher level than the national averages.

On a MICRO basis, as a assistant professor at UIC in 2004, in a secured high profile parking lot, my window was smashed for a theft. In out affluent subub, my car was broken into numerous times. And this was 2004, without a doubt crime in Illinois is significantly worse today. I won't even get into the gangs targeting upper middle class teenagers to hook these affluent teens on heroin, a very common practice in Illinois.

 

[Pew]

I spent two years as a assistant professor at UIC. One of my job requirements was to visit public schools and discuss how to apply for college. This is where I learned that reading, writing, and math were not part of the core curriculm at Illinois public schools.

On a MICRO basis, as a assistant professor at UIC in 2004, in a secured high profile parking lot, my window was smashed for a theft. In out affluent subub, my car was broken into numerous times. And this was 2004, without a doubt crime in Illinois is significantly worse today. I won't even get into the gangs targeting upper middle class teenagers to hook these affluent teens on heroin, a very common practice in Illinois.

I graduated highschool in 2009 in the West suburbs. Not sure where you went to go look but reading, math, science, etc, ALL the core studies were there and annually tested via the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. It was the same for the ~14 year spread between us siblings, all my friends, across all the schools.

You mentioned previously you lived in Elmhurst or Elk Grove. I think Chicagoland area ranks as one of the highest car theft areas in the country, that includes portions over the border in Gary and Hammond, IN. UIC had never been a secure campus anyways. It borders the horrible neighborhoods of West Loop (now gentrified and very upcoming with college students), Garfield Park (sorry, Pilsen), and Cabrini Green was just short distance away. Adding the lovely corruption of the Daley's and city Aldermans at the time too.

Heroin is a problem with the rural areas but that's not a phenomenon only to Illinois. The gangs don't push that, at least not anymore - that's a trailer park kind of drug. They pushed marijuana at the time and now it's cocaine. I'm actually quite amazed how many folks use coke on a regular basis.

That said, I'm not saying it's completely safe here either. I got jumped near my office downtown headed to a work party. I know it's still dangerous and keeping your head on a swivel is needed. But assuming the entirety of Illinois is the wild West based off issues stemming mainly from the inner city neighborhoods is kind of stretching it. I'm still not going to go downtown without carrying though.