Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler States w/decent weather and edu+low cost of living

Yeah, I know. This is dangerous.

Sleep is over-rated, you can work during the day and post all night....or we can send cousin Gino over to Peter's house and knee-cap his knuckles(!??) so you stay in front.

I just moved to Vancouver, WA.

They say it's grey season here, but I certainly love it. No income tax, just over the border from Portland...great.

We had higher temps than Florida Yesterday!

As far as I can tell, the cost of living is decent. And, in Oregon, no sales tax!

Come on up Ken. My employer is recruiting an IT bandit right now too. PM me for info if interested. If Michael's better half gets her way, you'll have company. Oh wait, you said decent weather and low cost of living....never mind. But, the salary just might convince you otherwise.

Not necessarily true. You can live in an area with lots of industry which can make school districts rich. The houses near industrial areas also tend to be less expensive. In this instance, you are sacrificing a desirable neighborhood for a rich school district. I live in a coastal area, but the weather is a big drawback here. I would also not brag about our education here as we tend to value athletics more than education.

The public education funding model varies widely from state-to-state. It's usually inaccurate to generalize about "quality" of education based on location because the primary factors tend to be the individual teacher, the class size and parental involvement.

Dan, now that we're within 150 miles of each other, I look forward to getting together some time. I absolutely agree that the Vancouver WA / Portland OR area is fantastic. I tried pretty hard to talk bigwill into moving there a few years ago.

Ken, because of you and Jen, your kids are going to get a great education regardless of the district or school they attend. You'll be involved, and they'll be ready to learn.

I'm a little surprised you didn't mention commuting or transportation infrastructure in your criteria. You are fairly spoiled in this area at the moment, and obviously have a pretty high threshold of pain relative to how much time you're willing to spend commuting.

My opinion is that there are too many micro-zones within your question for it to be meaningfully addressed here. You're really talking about a geopolitical boundary the size of a neighborhood (or an elementary school or - at largest - a school district) rather than a State.

Honestly, especially in the current economic climate, my opinion is that you have to let your job/career drive the location.

Your right Tom. As part of a graduate seminar I wrote a chapter of a congressional report on rural education. Path Analysis of data collected across the U.S. over 10 years and in Brazil for over 20 years showed a correlation coefficient of +.8 (nearly unheard of in sociological studies) showing that “significant others” (parents, teachers, siblings, clergy etc. . .) was by far the most significant factor in predicting the future educational and economic outcome of a child. School funding was uncorrelated when other more salient variables which almost always contributed to the low funding were controlled for. We found that the single most determining factor in a child’s educational outcome was the value the child’s parent(s) placed on education.

OTHO schools with students from poor neighborhoods, regardless of how funded did correlate with weaker educational outcomes because of underlying family and social issues (broken families, drug use, education being viewed negatively, etc. . .) that tended to cause these neighborhoods to be poor in the first place. If I were personally choosing where to raise a family I would seek to avoid such areas because of the pier pressure my children would face which would likely have a negative impact on them.

However, broad generalizations don’t always apply to every specific situation.

Tom, that would be great. I have friends all the way up in Bellingham (they just moved) so I imagine we'll have plenty of opportunities to meet up for a beer when I drive up or meet up in Seattle.

As a youngin...I'd agree on the school "micro" zones. Highschool wasn't...THAT far away (6 years? Crap) and I was lucky and got into a great district. A mile in another direction I could have been in a different one.

Come to North Dakota. As in the Conan O. skit (can't find it anymore on you tube): "Come see if we're murdering visitors....And bring your wallet!!!

Seriously though. Nothing you want exists here. Damn relatives fell for that "free land" (OK, stolen fair and square) thing.

I think I did a quick google search when planning my road trip, deciding whether to drive through ND.

It said it was one of the least visited states in the country.

Don't people want to see corn? C'mon!