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Well, we are currently strongly considering moving out of our condo but still owning it and renting it out, and finding a bigger rental to live in for a couple of years so we can save up for a longer term house in an area we want to stay in.

To me in depends on how bad the school would be and how bad the commute would be. If one was really awful I don't think that would be good. Any chance there is a reasonable private school to bridge the gap, if you end up hating the public school? Buying and moving within 3 years would kind of suck too. So I guess I would be inclined to try to stay?

Is private school an option for the first few years? I would hate to move and then end up not liking the school (even if it's highly rated). We are kinda in the same boat here- we are going to give up our well-loved apartment in our current city next year and moving back to where our parents live (in my actual parent's house) so kiddos can attend the schools we went to. We are pretty much priced out of the neighborhoods with amazing public schools here, and will need to save a significant amount to be able to afford to buy in the city where we grew up, although houses there are less expensive.

Why is the district poor...is it because of violence, or is it because of low test scores? I live in a not so great district (surrounding towns are consistently rated "the best" and often in the top in the nation, but it's because a starter home costs $1million, so it prices out the lower class). Just moving over a town wasn't an option, and neither is really relocating to another state, so I had to get creative.

My solution was to look at interdistrict charter and magnet schools. There are tons of options out there and I was surprised to learn that not many parents knew or took advantage of them.

@Mrs. Carrot: what type of commute would your husband be willing to do? When I worked in DC, I had a 1:30 commute (one way) that took me from my house in Maryland to the marc train, to the metro. Then I walked to my office. It wasn't terrible and I'd be willing to do it again if it meant a killer pension and dealing with it for just a few years.

I would stay put - I wouldn't buy for only 3 years

I like the suggestion to rent out your existing place and then rent in another location. That would probably minimize your transaction costs.

I'd stay put. If you're in a poor school district (assuming test scores, ratings, etc and not bad like your kid isn't safe there), since LO is still young, I'd probably just suck it up in the school district. I feel like when they're young you can do a lot to supplement their learning, enrich their learning experiences on your own or with other activities/classes outside of school.

@Mrs. Carrot: ugh. I miss DC but I sure don't miss that commute. I think the other choice I would consider is the option of charter or magnet school. And last resort - the cruddy school for a few years.

I would stay put. The curriculum your LO will be learning in grades K-2 is stuff that you will likely be interested and able to help out with at home anyway, so I think it's entirely possible for your kid to keep up with reading and basic math through you and DH helping a bit at home. Then you'd be moving to a better school district by the time he's old enough to be getting into harder subjects and will really benefit from better teachers.

(This is actually really similar to the path I followed as a kid - I grew up in DC area and attended a high-immigrant population, very low-rated school for K-2, then switched to full-time gifted center at a different school starting in grade 3. It really did work out fine for me, I just spent a ton of time reading books independently and doing math on my own since it was fun.)

Personally the learning/scores stuff wouldn't bother me as much as discipline. Does your LO have the personality to handle public school classroom management policies? Like standing in line, sharing, etc. In struggling schools I feel like good classroom management is a real struggle for teachers, who usually are understaffed, overworked, poorly compensated, and without resources. This is just my opinion after having my son in a public daycare for a while, and seeing what a struggle it is for the teachers to do classroom management without resources or parental support. At four I don't think my son is ready so we are doing private pre K to give him more opportunity to mature. I am hoping we will do public K but I would definitely consider private K if he just wasn't ready.

@Mrs. Carrot: Ok, got it. The schools in my town are similar...because housing costs are lower in some parts, you get a lot of folks coming in that don't speak English as their first language. On the one hand I preach diversity, but on the other hand, I know my son. He would take the opportunity where a teacher is focused on helping others to be a little, how do I say this...distracting himself!!!

The problem I have isn't so much with the parental involvement (it's a problem at all schools, I think you get the core group that helps and it's hard to recruit for so many reasons), it's that when you have a lot of kids that need additional attention, or instruction in a second language, it cuts down on the time the teacher has to focus on the actual material. So, even though they present the materials, they are spending so much time on the kids that need extra help to learn it that it can take away from the typical learners.

That's just my 2 cents. I know it's hard, I went to these same schools and I think I turned out quite nicely, but it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison given the 30 year time span that has elapsed.

Have you looked into charter and magnet programs?

Where in NJ? If it's Northern NJ, anywhere close to NYC, I would suggest staying put and saving up your pennies for a larger down payment. The NYT just wrote an article last week about the crazy bidding wars in the desirable NJ suburbs of NYC. And then of course, property taxes are crazy. It's one of the things that keeps us from moving further out to the suburbs (we are also in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with two kids).

Our local school district isn't great on paper (I think the Great Schools rating is like, a 2 or 3), but I hear better things from parents and I work with one of the elementary school principal's wives, who has good things to say about the school district, so we have enrolled our LO in the public Pre-K program and have no issues keeping her here at least through 5th grade.

I've worked in very low income "bad" schools and high income "good" schools and the differences are not what parents tend to think. The best school I've ever worked in, with the most dedicated and brightest teachers and administration, was the poorest school. 98% low income and 80% esl. But the things that school was doing were just amazing. Their test scores weren't that great (but not terrible, like some schools...just kind of average), but when you consider they were getting low-average scores with some of the poorest kids who had just moved to the US that year, then those average scores are amazing.

I feel like Kindergarten can be fine almost anywhere. As long as you feel your child is in a safe environment, then I would stay put for now.

As a previous poster mentioned, look into the possibility of paying to attend a better public school, if there is one that could work for drop off and pick up.

Some of my relatives do that. They pay about 3,000 per year to attend an adjoining school district. Not DC. Probably costs more there, but worth considering.