Buying a Home in a Better School District

I stopped by Great Schools this evening to look at my son's school and compare with nearby schools and town. These are things you start thinking about once your child enters the public school system. Of course, ideally I should have thought about this before we bought our home and chose to buy a home based on where the good school districts were. However, we had a very good sense for our community that our town was an excellent choice for finding good schools.

We are lucky, when it comes to California schools in general, of having a good district with a lot of parental involvement. I volunteer once a week to work in my son's kindergarten room, as well as many other parents. It is this kind of participation that improves overall education for the children in his school and schools in our community.

I went to the 3 year planning committee meeting a few months ago and was surprised to be the only - yes the only parent there not already affiliated with the school in some capacity as an employee or contractor. It was open to the public and yet no one showed up.

As parents it is not only our right, but also our responsibility to take action to help evolve our school system to the learning academies that will help our children prosper in their lives. I was a big advocate in the meeting for "greening" the schools, reducing homework, and relying less on test scores and instead on more well-rounded activities that would produce children with life balance (something I teach).

Since no one else from the general public was there I was able to speak for 45 minutes. This is in a district of 5 elementary schools. I would have rather have spoken 10 minutes and had other passionate parents there with me who had wonderful ideas for improving the schools.

I was surprised to learn that on average schools in California(including my son's school) receive between $10,000-$11,000 a year per student in funding from the state and fundraising activities. Our community raises $1.5 million dollars from private donors to fund art and science in our district. You would think those should be a part of the curriculum and funding, but they are not.

East Coast schools have an average of $18,000 in funding per student. That is almost twice as much. A big difference. I thought my friend who lived in Connecticut was joking when she described her son's public elementary school. It sounded like a posh country club. Wouldn't I just love to spend an extra $7,000 per student in our commuity on enhancing the schools and curriculum. However, I don't have that option - well the school administrators don't.

For those of you parents whose children are in the public school system in less fortunate states than Connecticut (ie: California), know that you can help make a differnce, even it means just volunteering an hour a week at the school, in the classroom or at a fundraiser. Every heart and hand counts.

It takes a village to raise our children and WE ARE THAT VILLAGE.