Reply #36: If you can afford to pay for a private high school

[Dappleganger]

then you can afford more options. This is why we chose to live just outside of the major city, as the PS system was so poorly run and the signs were all there for total failure. We found the smallest house we could stand to live in which had a much better school district, although the drive is a bit far. At the time the market was just beginning to go way up so we bought at the beginning of the 'bubble'. You couldn't find a rental home to save your life, although now they're a dime a dozen due to the market crash. Taxes are a bit lower here, but we get a HUGE bang for the buck with public education. Many, many people from the city have moved out here just for the schools (and at least now it's possible to find rentals and apartments).

Another option which our state of FL has is FL Virtual School, their fully-accredited online school. This is run as its own school system but overseen by the FL state dept. of Ed. Many fine teachers who are either newly retired or laid off from teaching are employed by this program. They use internet and frequent phone calls (and the occasional meetup!) for student-teacher interaction. This kind of learning has weekly accountability and monthly phone conferences. Your child doesn't move forward until they know the material. Our daughter used this during the past year (she's 13) and they use the exact same texts as the local middle school, to which she'll be returning in the fall. Online learning is definitely not for everyone but for some students it's just the right method of teaching. It's very important to make sure they get plenty of socialization if they go that route.