Reply to Lottery lists: What's best now, or look ahead?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you can’t/won’t move or get a car, don’t go WOTP for ES. You will no longer have the lovely lifestyle you have now. Your kids will be on unreliable public transport during rush hour every day and that’s a big family stressor. [/quote]

I don't find the metro (how our middle schooler commutes) to be unreliable. Though we are a "car-light" family and use it to get to activities that aren't convenient on transit.[/quote]

Depends on the school. For those right on Metro (Murch, Ross, Janney?), it’s not bad, even remembering that OP will have to go with two or three young children who can’t ride by themselves. If on a bus line (OP mentions Eaton and Hearst), it gets less reliable and much more of a hassle with two or three ES age kids.

Our kids have gotten to school  on foot, by bike and car, and on Metro and the bus. 
[/quote]

+1, bus commutes can be dodgy because they are so traffic-dependent. Also buses tend to get backed up later in the day so your kid may wind up waiting an hour for the bus coming home some days. It's not reliable, unfortunately.

I think the real issue here is that they have two separate issues: (1) desire to maintain car free lifestyle, and (2) desire to get into a sure bet through HS. The only way to solve that problem would be to move to a place where either Deal/J-R or Hardy/MacArthur are workable commutes without a car from where they live. Neither will be an easy commute via public transit from where they live now. But it doesn't sound like they want to move.

So I think, OP, you need to rank your priorities. If the car free lifestyle is a top priority, I would punt on the HS issue and just take care of MS for now, since you can do that without moving by lotterying into a Stuart-Hobson or Francis feeder, both of which are reasonable commutes from your current location. You also might luck out with charters for MS, and have S-H/Francis as your backup, and the charter option would set you up through HS.

If HS path is your top priority, and presuming J-R is your preference there, then you either need to move or accept that you will likely need a car from your current location (and accept a longer commute even now to the feeder elementary, as any of those will be further than the S-H or Francis feeders.

If not moving is your top priority, then you need to either accept you can't lock down HS down OR accept you will have to get a car to accommodate the commute to schools that are tough commutes from where you live now.

Only you can decide which of these things is the most important to you. No judgement here -- I can see why they are all important. But one has to be most important.[/quote]

This is great advice. +1[/quote]

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