<p>I am very close to the ground in this situation, and what I am telling you is potentially against my own interest. I don’t want to say too much. </p>
<p>I am watching budget cuts tear apart our high performing school district. Prop 2.5 combined with first reliance and the cuts of federal stimulus and cuts in local aid from the state have done what I thought would be impossible. I don’t feel that there is a sense of reality among those who manage our town about how much additional money it would take to maintain our quality, or even among many parents who don’t see the effects of many years of compounding when costs exceed 2.5% and revenues don’t. Each battle is fought one year at time, and the hole just keeps getting deeper. We are not staring into the abyss, we are in it. </p>
<p>My advice to you is to divide school districts into the follow 4 categories</p>
<p>1) High performing, well funded - regularly passes Prop 2.5 overrides with no problem to fund schools
2) High performing, poorly funded - tolerates budget cuts over overrides.
3) Not so high performing, well funded (best example is Cambridge)
4) Not so high performing, poorly funded </p>
<p>Look for (1), this is the one you want. It costs a lot of money, but you get to keep your house when you are done with the schools. Private school tuition is lost forever. </p>
<p>Avoid (2). This is deceptively expensive, seems promising, I mean how bad can it really get? Wrong. You are buying into a sinking ship. </p>
<p>(3) is an interesting option. It may be what you have now. It’s worth a shot. You should be able to tell pretty quickly if your kid is getting the attention that they need. You need to pay attention and make sure your kids are getting sufficiently challenged. You may need to bail for HS, but you save a lot of money if you can access good public schools. </p>
<p>(4) - private school if you want an education. </p>
<p>I can’t stress how important this is. Things are deteriorating extremely rapidly. In the old days when we looked for our house, test scores were important, budget wasn’t that much of an issue. Test scores and statistics are now meaningless because it’s old data. The changes I’ve witnessed over one or two years will shock you. </p>
<p>In my opinion, the stability of a town’s school budget is the most important aspect of your decision going forward. </p>
<p>Up until the Romney administration, state aid was used generously to manage Prop 2.5 issues throughout the state. Overrides were rare, but usually successful. Romney cut state aid, Patrick has not been able to restore it, tea party mentality has set in. Overrides are failing left and right. </p>
<p>Good luck with a hard decision.</p>