According to Business Week, most of the best 50 towns to raise kids are in Nebraska???

[NewJeffCT]

Now I'm sure that Nebraska is a nice place to live and all, but it really dominates the Business Week list of best places to raise a child. Not one town from New England, California, Oregon or Washington made the list. 11 towns from Nebraska, however, made the list. I saw one town with 128 people????

WTF?

Echelon, N.J. Arapahoe, Neb. Lackland, Texas You've probably never heard of most of the small towns that make up BusinessWeek.com's 2007 list of the Best Places to Raise Your Kids. And there's a reason: Tight-knit communities like to stay private.

Working with national real estate researcher OnBoard in New York City, BW came up a list of 50 places in the U.S. that offer kids - and their parents-the right combination of safety, community, and education. Whether you're expecting your first - born or preparing your kids for college, our list weighs the five criteria every parent should consider when choosing a new home: test scores, cost of living, recreational and cultural
activities, number of schools, and risk of crime.

Why Groesbeck Tops Our List

The results spanned the country: 11 places in Nebraska, seven in both Illinois and Ohio; six in New York; four in Tennessee; three in Michigan; two apiece in Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas; and one each in Alabama, Mississippi, and Oregon. And on a semirural patch of land seven miles northwest of Cincinnati, we found the clear winner: Groesbeck, an unincorporated suburb that shares its government, law enforcement, and school system with the Colerain Township.

http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/great_places_to_raise...

[GOPisEvil]

1. Lackland, TX isn't even a real city.

What a crock of shit. It's part and parcel of San Antonio.

[huskerlaw]

14. The "city" selection

is ridiculously random. Some of the Nebraska towns they selected, I'd never even HEARD of. And based on their geography, I assure you there's about 200 people there and nothing any bigger for many, many miles.

I don't necessarily disagree with including parts of Nebraska...or even some towns in Texas...but the ones they chose? Random, and pretty much baseless.

[Critters2]

2. Most of the Illinois towns--all of which are suburbs--are wicked wealthy

Places with the money of Barrington, Wilmette, or Deerfield damn well ought to have good parks and rec and killer test scores. But huge portions of the population can't afford to live there.

And it's interesting that some of those small Nebraska towns out-tested the rich 'burbs. Don't know what to make of it, but it's interesting.

[lost-in-nj]

3. Thats because most of the year

its to fucking cold to do anything......

your kids will stay home....

my kids did in NJ....
I would imagine the same in Nebraska...



lost

[lizziegrace]

4. I grew up in a community next to Groesbeck

Wow. Who'd have thought??

[bicentennial_baby]

5. We'll stay in MA, thank you very much

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Groesbeck's public school system

offers parents a choice among three elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school in the area — Colerain High School, whose Colerain Cardinals football team is currently vying for a championship. The town also neighbors one of the top private elementary schools in the state, St. James School, which was honored in 2007 for the fourth time by the No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Program. To receive that award, a school must be in the top 10% of all schools in the state in both reading and math scores for the current year.


Hot spit! A good football team and a school where kids learn how to pass tests?? Don't just sit there, Ethel, go rent a U-Haul!

[NewJeffCT]

8. I noticed that as well

I also noticed that "top 10%" in the state factor as well. If a town scores well (top 10%) in a state where the schools suck - like Bush's Texas - how does that stack up to a town that scores maybe in the top 25% in Massachusetts or Connecticut, where schools are generally very good?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. My favorite was the photo...

A parking lot. Having been to Groesbeck (lived in Cincinnati for 20 years) that's probably its most attractive feature -- if you've ever driven on Colerain Avenue, you know what I mean. The place is a friggin' pit of despair. Nothing but strip malls and crappy little houses.

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. If you look around the edges of the article, can you find the word "Advertisement"?

It might be very small.

[NewJeffCT]

9. morning kick

thought some people would be interested in this.

[Heidi]

10. I loved living in Nebraska.

I lived there for nearly 15 years. I'm not a big fan of the state's winter weather, but the people are great.

[CreekDog]

12. Boy, I doubt the kids had a say in this study n/t

[huskerlaw]

13. You know....

having been born and raised in Nebraska, I wouldn't entirely disagree.

If they are basing the list on things like affordability of housing, schools, medical care, etc...then, yeah. Nebraska would score really high. Though I did find the towns they selected to be perplexing. Some of them are completely out in the middle of BFE. Dirt-cheap housing, but zero jobs. Not cool.

Suburban Omaha or Lincoln though...those I definitely understand. Perhaps not the most thrilling life for the parents, but there are many safe, affordable, soccer-mom communities with great schools and healthcare.

[MissMillie]

15. Well, according to child advocacy groups, Maine is the state

I think I trust the child advocacy groups more.

[Arugula Latte]

16. I need a coast. If I raised my kids inland, they'd have one depressed mother.

I can't take being landlocked. I really get freaked out. When I lived in Colorado, I would "hallucinate" that the purple plains in the distance (as seen from the mountains) were the ocean ...

[mwdem]

17. There is no Echelon, New Jersey!

That area is in Voorhees. I used to live in Cherry Hill. They're making up cities.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. No offense Nebraska, but I like my tight little close-knit Maine community