Even in South Bay commute distance can trump schools. Chevy Chase has worse schools than Cupertino but it seems to be narrowing the gap at supersonic speed.
With SF public school - the assignment is not automatic to your closest or neighborhood school. It is this “uncertainty” that I think makes it hard to plan.
There are plenty of rich folks here with kids and they go with private schools. There are plenty of private schools in the city and I do not believe they are hurting. Again, partly to the misconception that a) the public schools are bad and (b) perhaps families didn’t their top choice of public school so they opt for private. Hey, if you have the means and want to spend upwards of 50k/yr on Jr that is fine with me. I went to public schools and ended up at Lowell and turned out reasonably ok without costing my blue collar folks their life savings.
Even the smallest Sunset basic home, a 2/1 will cost a 1M these days. That is not high value? Sure, the west side can be colder than other parts of the Fab 7x7 but believe me, if that open house I went to last Sunday was an indication there are plenty of young families (Asian and Caucasian) wanting in on the Sunset. They are finding yes the PUBLIC schools are fine and yes there is street parking and yes you might even get a yard to call your very own.
These families are not being realistic in selecting their schools, so of course they don’t get their first choice. They should choose the school where their home is closest to. So if you live in Portola, don’t try to sneak your way into a Sunset school.
By the way, I used to live in Portola but attended Presidio, so my family was being super sneaky back then even before they implemented this joke of an open enrollment lottery system
Haha… that was entirely my parents decision. I had no idea what was going on. I had to bus my way to Richmond everyday and the ride took almost an hour one way. That was back in the 80s…
Me too, but a decade earlier (more or less). Took Muni on my own from Chinatown to the Mission for middle school. Yet, my lil sister got to go to Marina (way better school) when it was her turn. We all ended up at Lowell but I still feel I got hosed out of all of the kids for having to go across the city on my own when there were perfectly fine institutions of learning closer (Francisco or maybe Marina)…