Would a LA Unified School District Takeover of the Hermosa Beach School Really Be So Bad?

In the last two post I have highlighted studies showing that the quality of the local schools is a huge factor in property values and home prices.  These studies showed the results in different ways.  For example one showed that a 1% change in pass rates resulted in a 1% change in property values, in the same direction of course.  Other studies showed that people would pay a large premium to live in a neighborhood with good schools over living in a similar neighborhood with bad schools.

Then we must ask the question, would turning over the Hermosa Beach City School District to the Los Angeles Unified School District ( LAUSD ) be so bad?  Let me give you some numbers.

The California Department of Education ranks schools using the Academic Performance Index, or API.  There are different indices withing the API, and we will look at the API Growth Index. In 2010, Hermosa Beach Schools earned an API of 936!  This is a great score, ranking the Hermosa Beach City School District in the very top of California schools.  LAUSD earned a score of 709.  LAUSD's API ranking was 24% lower than the Hermosa Beach City School District API ranking.  Does that mean that handing over the Hermosa Beach schools to LAUSD will cause Hermosa Beach home prices to fall 24%?  Maybe not.  Maybe we will get lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will only fall by 15%!  Or maybe we won't be so lucky and home prices in Hermosa Beach will fall by 30%.

If we really want to find out what will happen when the Hermosa Beach schools are gutted, all we have to do is nothing.  As it is, the schools district doesn't have enough money, and our representatives don't have the ideas, motivation, or desire to do anything about it.

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So enter your address above, or go to Zillow's site ( http://www.zillow.com/ ).  Type in your address, find out what your home is worth today, and play around with some numbers.  Will your home fall in value by $100k?  $300k?  $500k?  Is that OK with you?  Then sit tight, because that is what is going to happen.

Hermosa Beach City Council
Peter Tucker Mayor peter@electpetertucker.com
Howard Fishman Mayor Pro Tempore kkfish@earthlink.net
Jeff Duclos Councilmember jeff@jeffduclos.com
Patrick "Kit" Bobko Councilmember kit.bobko@gmail.com
Michael DiVirgilio Councilmember mdivir@gmail.com
Councilmembers' phone number (310) 318-0216
Councilmembers' fax number (310) 372-6186

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