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[quote=Anonymous]OP re moving for BASIS - we all probably know plenty of people who have made or changed their decision about where to live based on schools.

Of the people you all know who could not afford private  school for their children and work in the DC area, how many do you know who either bought their first house together in Maryland or Virginia based in part on the public school system, or who left the city once their child was old enough for school because the neighborhood they lived in did not have a good public school? How many do you know who decided after elementary school if they were not zoned for Deal (or even if they were) to move to Maryland or Virginia for middle and high school if they did not send their kids to private school?  We know people in all these categories.

We know plenty of people who bought right over the border of DC who plan to send their kids all the way through the school system they have chosen.  Many of these schools rank fairly highly in the various "best public high schools in America" lists every year. No DC high school can claim that thus far.

We are not talking about foreign countries here or areas that are an additional hour away. Precisely because parts of Maryland and Virginia that are so close to DC have good public schools, we know a lot of people who have moved so that their kids can go to those schools.

Quite a few kids who went to my private DC school lived in Maryland 30 years ago, and I'm sure that is still the case. Growing up here I did not really think about when I crossed a state line, or if someone lived in Maryland or Virginia instead of DC. In fact, the only people with children who can live anywhere are those who take the private school route from beginning to end.

We bought our house based on the elementary school when we moved to DC but since we only had one kid who was 2 at the time (we now have a few more and one is in 6th grade), we did not think beyond that.

We live in the city and were starting to believe that we were going to have to move out to give our kids the best public education available after 5th grade.  But that kind of public education - a large school system with tracking, a fair number of AP classes,  but also an emphasis on sports and probably social status, would not have been an ideal environment for us (we both went to small private schools where we knew almost every single kid in our high school and our entire graduating class), and we were not looking forward to having our kids in these large schools either.

My husband grew up in NYC where there were lots of public magnet schools based on different skill sets and selective admissions for each one (no lottery), where the kids ended up going to MIT etc.  I know the names of some  high schools in DC that are focused on particular skills (like Duke Ellington), but we have nothing like the schools in New York.

Then Basis came along and changed our minds.   Our kids have a real aptitude for math and science.  Given the low acceptance rate at the one great math and science school in Fairfax (which is based on merit but admits fewer applicants than some Ivy League colleges and universities), we had decided that we could not count on all 3 kids getting in to TJ.  But we now have a kid in Basis, and are very optimistic.  Had we moved out earlier, we would have moved back - provided we knew our first child was in.  DC is a very transient city.  People move from here and to here very quickly from places very far away.  And I barely blink when someone moves across the river.

So if the only reason a family would move here or move back is a specific charter school acceptance, the same way a family might move to fairfax if accepted to TJ, I don't see how that is wrong. People become Virginia residents to go to UVA, but that usually just means moving across the river, not moving an entire family.[/quote]

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