Reply to Arlington County is voted best school district in this region.

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Reply to "Arlington County is voted best school district in this region."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, you probably don't need to worry.  People who moved to Fairfax for the schools may not change their minds because they still have TJ and we don't.  Or they can't afford homes in Arlington.  Or they don't want to spend more money than they already have on a smaller home with a smaller lot.  Or they like the county services - having lived in both Fairfax and Arlington, I found the rec classes/teams to be easier there.

People in MontCo also have decent schools, similar or better housing stock, and a lot of them don't particularly want to cross the river.

People in Alexandria City are already moving here during or after elementary school because they don't trust their middle/high school options.  Same with DC.

So I think that it'll stay pretty much the same, regardless of what an article says about our schools.

The reason Arlington schools are overcrowded now, I think, is because planners assumed that the old patterns of people continuing to move further out as their families grew older/bigger would hold true, and they're not. People don't automatically move from Arlington to Fairfax (or Loudoun) anymore when they need more space.  Some do, but many add on, buy a bigger place in Arlington or suck it up to have the sweet DC commute.[/quote]

I'd like to see a study that really explains what accounts for the growth in APS enrollment.  I'd assumed it was largely a function of people who'd moved to Arlington when they were younger, liked it and stayed after they had kids, and possibly sought out larger quarters (i.e., a house vs. an apartment).  I know a few people who've moved from Fairfax to Arlington, but just as many who've moved from Arlington to Fairfax.  For the people I know, it's been mostly about a shorter commute or a bigger house/yard, not the schools or what they could or couldn't afford.   Or that APS was capturing a larger share of people with kids moving to the DC region or moving out of DC to the suburbs, as well as accommodating more undocumented minors.  I'd tend to think moves from other DC-area suburbs don't account for too much of the increase.

Also, if you live in Arlington, your kid can attend TJ if he/she gets in.  It takes less time to get to TJ from Clarendon than it is to get there from Great Falls or Chantilly.   On the other hand, if you live in FCPS, you can't apply to HB Woodlawn.    [/quote]

It's many things. All of the school systems around here are seeing growth, so some of this is a demographic effect and not particular to Arlington. Also, more people are staying in Arlington, esp. for middle and high school, more people in apartments are sending kids to the schools, and more people are choosing public over private. The cumulative effect is significant growth, even though it doesn't mean the tax base is expanding at the same rate. That is, most of the growth is coming from existing houses sending more kids to schools, not from building new houses. This is why the County Board is freaking out--they have to give the schools proportionately more money, and don't want to because then they'd have to raise taxes or cut something on the county side. 
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