No School Better than Home School - Granite Grok

No School Better than Home School

VT Middle/High School with 3 kids
VT Middle/High School with three kids

In Vermont we have your typical mandatory public education story flipped on its head. There are not enough kids to have a high school!

The “locals” seem befuddled as to what to do. It seems without having a big expensive school system no one can figure out how to educate three high school kids. The cost per student is currently over $21,000 each per year.

Welcome to Rochester, Vt.

The interesting thing about this small town of 1,139 is that there is a college within 25 miles in almost every direction.

Welcome to Vermont – The Education State.

You want to move into a place like Rochester, VT? There are some homes for sale.

As you would expect, the price range varies. You can get a small building lot with a view for under $150,000. Camps go for $100,000 or less.

A glorified mobile home is going to be in that range, along with some other houses coming in at up to $200,000.

Then the jump to half-million-dollar homes comes in. That would be the “locals” with the New York/Ct. accents who have the corner store packed with the NY Times, Hartford Current, WSJ on Sundays.

But educating three kids is beyond this idyllic community.

Education must be important to Rochester, Vt. Residents if you look at the demographics.

For population 25 years of age and over in Rochester:

High school or higher: 87.9%
Bachelor’s degree or higher: 33.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 11.1%
Unemployed: 4.4%
Mean travel time to work (commute): 22.8 minutes

In the 2016 Vt. General Election Rochester 76% of the Town’s voters came out. The results are not surprising:

Rochester:  Clinton – 393, Trump – 162

This explains everything.

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