I’m in Dallas and grew up in a small university town, although more of a state school but I get what you’re saying. In Dallas, the rich mostly white suburbs top the “best schools” list but from what I’ve heard many entire school districts are now on an Ivy League recruiting ban list because of high rates of cheating. I don’t think it matters much to the parents out there, they want their kids to go their university or somewhere that has a good football team.

The emphasis on sports in Texas is a big turn off for me. We opted to live inner city “bad school” area and just send our kid to a private school. They have sports but it’s basically for fun, exercise and team building life skills. We don’t care about how good or bad we are for the most part (of course we celebrate the wins… but hope you see what I’m saying).

Cost wise, it’s expensive. It wouldn’t be feasible for an average income family but we can swing it with one kid.