[kar5pt]

"The education system isn't highly rated overall so you'll have to choose carefully if you have kids."

This is an understatement. Virtually everyone I knew in Florida who had kids sent them to private school. These weren't rich people (they weren't in tech). Anyone who was remotely middle class would find a way to scrap the funds together because the public schools were so horrendous.

[alphaomegacode]

True. Forgot about that since most of my family and friends did same and since I was half public and half private myself lol. Sad actually when you think of the tax base and population count.

[moomoo11]

Why are the schools so bad?

[kar5pt]

They pay their teachers significantly less than other states. Especially after you factor in the cost of living (FL is not nearly as affordable as people in NY/CA think it is).

According to these sources, they're 4th lowest in teacher salaries despite being 36th lowest in COL: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teacher-pay... https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity...

This results in public schools taking whatever they can get teacher-wise. Where I grew up (NJ) being a public school teacher was a respectable career that people would actually go to college and study for. It's not like that in FL. A lot of teachers are just people who couldn't find a job elsewhere and need to pay the bills.

[askafriend]

Look at Florida's voterbase and demographics