Living in the city with family....help

[Don Cuccino]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

Two kids. One would be in 4th or 5th grade when we make the move. The other in college. Sounds like the odds would be stacked against a decent city move.

Take what you read online with a grain of salt. Lots of hyperbole and chicken little paranoia. If you were looking to rent an apartment for $800 a month then I'd be worried, but your options in the suburbs would be just as bleak. In your price range the schools in your neighborhood will be fine. I send my kid to a public school in a good neighborhood. Her school is awesome. Her classmates parents could easily afford private schools but decide to send them to the same public school.

[Bitey]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

Two kids. One would be in 4th or 5th grade when we make the move. The other in college. Sounds like the odds would be stacked against a decent city move.

Yeah, even if you move into a decent elementary school boundary (and by the way "elementary" in CPS goes K-8), you'll end up playing High School Wheel of Fortune just a a couple years later -- a game that starts in earnest in 6th grade. And the economic tiers the district creates to "diversify" the selective enrollment high schools substantially disadvantages most kids in the "good" elementary school boundaries; the grades and scores they have to achieve to get into the high-achieving high schools are astronomical compared to the other economic tiers, and they're competing against high concentrations of other ambitious achievers for class rank/test scores/etc.

MAYBE worth it for those who already live in the city and don't want to uproot themselves... but IMO you'd be nuts to move into that buzz saw when you have your pick of high-performing high schools in the suburbs just by moving into their attendance boundaries.

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by Don Cuccino

Take what you read online with a grain of salt. Lots of hyperbole and chicken little paranoia. If you were looking to rent an apartment for $800 a month then I'd be worried, but your options in the suburbs would be just as bleak. In your price range the schools in your neighborhood will be fine. I send my kid to a public school in a good neighborhood. Her school is awesome. Her classmates parents could easily afford private schools but decide to send them to the same public school.

Thanks. I'm sure there's some truth to that.

Originally Posted by Bitey

Yeah, even if you move into a decent elementary school boundary (and by the way "elementary" in CPS goes K-8), you'll end up playing High School Wheel of Fortune just a a couple years later -- a game that starts in earnest in 6th grade. And the economic tiers the district creates to "diversify" the selective enrollment high schools substantially disadvantages most kids in the "good" elementary school boundaries; the grades and scores they have to achieve to get into the high-achieving high schools are astronomical compared to the other economic tiers, and they're competing against high concentrations of other ambitious achievers for class rank/test scores/etc.

MAYBE worth it for those who already live in the city and don't want to uproot themselves... but IMO you'd be nuts to move into that buzz saw when you have your pick of high-performing high schools in the suburbs just by moving into their attendance boundaries.

Thank you as well.