Reply to Let's discuss public schools in the SFBA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's because of Prop 13, a very short-sighted decision that has limited property tax money flowing into schools, even as demand skyrockets.

A couple personal anecdotes:

I grew up in the part of San Carlos that feeds into Redwood City schools.  My parents pulled me into Catholic school when my public elementary couldn't keep teachers for more than a few months, and the middle school didn't have enough desks to go around (the Catholic school was no great shakes either but we had desks and it was safe).  They've since remodeled and expanded the public school and it's now well regarded locally -- although it seems to only be good by comparison to what it once was, not by comparison to what you could get outside of CA.

Separately, San Carlos HS was closed when I was a child.  This was not directly because of Prop 13, but was another short-sighted decision made by an aging voting population: enrollment was down (aging households had not yet flipped over to new families) and local government wanted to take advantage of the growing real estate demand.  The site is now a housing development, and the city has no high school.[/quote]

San Carlos schools are considered excellent now! The 4-7s are because Greatschools recently changed their rankings to "equity ratings" based on how the test scores of students on free/reduced lunch.  Some of the schools in my district that were 9s last year have now dropped to 7s.

But  yes, you can have a $1+ million home and need to send your kids to a magnet school (or private school). 
[/quote]

Great Schools didn't change their rankings--California did (as did other states) in response to new federal legislation that requires that schools be showing growth for all kids, rather than just looking at average performance of kids. Some schools that previously looked very strong and have fallen had kids who came in high-performing but weren't necessarily moving them much year to year; others had small numbers of kids far below grade level who were averaged out in the old system by many kids above grade level. Great Schools just uses a formula that has the state scores as an input.

But agreed with PP--even the "good" California schools are a shadow of what they once were, and sadly many would not be considered strong compared to schools in other states. [/quote]

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