Lately I've been consumed with thinking about school for my boys. School as in private school versus public school, and in the case of the latter, which town's public school near us is the best.
I had the best of both worlds with my public high school experience: with 92 kids in my graduating class and one of the top rated high schools in the country, I might as well have attended private school.
But that was a small town in Connecticut, and here in the western 'burbs of Philadelphia, you'd be hard pressed to find a school of the same size and caliber.
My husband gets offended because the town we live in is where he went to high school, yet ranked as only a "semi-decent" school. He turned out just fine. Yet two towns away is one of the top public schools in the nation.
Which leaves us where. Do we move? Of course the houses in the "top ranked" town are small and run-down in our price range. We can stay here, or we can shell out more money for less of a house. And if we don't do that, are we cheating our kids from the best education possible? Am I crappy parent for wanting a better house in a not-as-good school system when I could live in a hovel in a better system for my boys?
It's a dilemma. And a lot of pressure, one that's only become stronger as my oldest gets closer to entering Kindergarten. What do you all think? Do you feel this crazy school-related stress that I do?
Here's a link to the latest Best (public) High School rankings from US News & World Report.