Since many people buy/rent in an area that is in a good school district, I’d like to start a discussion on the impact of magnet schools, charter schools vs. neighborhood schools, and busing and the impact it has had on the changes in our society. Our childrens’ obsession with electronics vs. interaction with other children is way down I believe, and the future of our society is that people are more isolation from each other. Companionship via internet “ friends” is more the norm. In the 70s, busing was a thing to get poorer neighborhoods funding for their schools, to give all kids a better start in life. I I am seeing that school age kids today feel isolated and use electronic devices instead of having friendships because no one knows the children who live near them. In the “old days” you walked to school and talked to the kids on the way and knew where they lived and had friends in the neighborhood. Now you only have aquaintences in school , or at soccer practice, scouting, church, etc. because kids don’t get to interact with kids who live near them. For us, the local elementary and middle schools had gone down hill so much that we sent our kids to a magnet school across town. We drove them. One of our children was not accepted in a magnet school as the slots filled up, so we put her in a private school for that year. Now the local school has been turned into a magnet school and is improving. You still have to be approved even if your kids live within walking distance. How things have changed ......Not much community anymore, children fractioned out around the city...........

99 percent of the problems with children today stem directly from their own homes and the parenting (or lack thereof) that allows children to spend countless hours playing or communicating on their electronic devices instead of going outside and playing with other children or even finding work by mowing lawns, weeding, washing cars, or even selling lemonade.

I purchased 7 single family homes in the West San Fernando Valley. 5 of these homes turned out to have the TOP Elementary, Great middle school and award winning High School.

Because of this renters in this area didn't have to send their kids to private school saving them so much money. When I have a vacancy, families with kids fight to rent those homes.

I have other rentals near to private magnet type schools too and other public schools. I have three apartment buildings across the street from schools too.

Hate me for saying it, but the crisis with our kids started with Milk Carton Kids and Etan Patz and Adam Walsh. John Walsh raised such a huge alarm about "stranger danger" and missing kids that parents panicked and kept their kids inside. I remember when it happened, my kids were young then. And now the law forces them. No going outside to play, no playing in trees, no building forts or just PLAYING with other kids. Now it's all scheduled sports and clubs and teams. Kids are miserable.

And it all started with the Milk Carton Kids.

I'm not saying that we didn't need to raise awareness of the problem that the police, in general, would not help or respond to even a missing child until 24 hours had passed. And it was horrific what happened Adam Walsh.

But we damaged generations of kids for a problem that is very very small compared to the danger that often exists in kids own families...(very small but very publicized.)

I go bonkers when I pass school bus stops and see the kids standing there like zombies not interacting at all but the mothers standing there jabbering away. I live in a nice area. If you can't trust your kids to be at the corner a block away from the house along with the other kids, you should lock them in the basement and hide there.

The boys are to be bothering the girls (or vice versa). there is to be some cussing going on. I guess no longer sneaking a smoke. The kids are to be running through the lawn and the old people who live at the corner of the bus stop are to be fuming about the kids. In other words, let them live.

I see my grandchildren and their friends and I go bonkers. Why would a parent feel the need to stay at an 8 year olds birthday party when they know the parents, know the kids from school and live in the same neighborhood.

At little league , a 10 year old comes over to his mom crying about who knows what. Why isn't the coach out there telling him to walk it off, tough if up, whatever.

My oldest's sister-in-law was saying one day about meeting her kid at the bus stop. She lived two doors down from the corner. Seems she didn't want her precious little angel to walk with the "bad" kids from the house across the street. You know, maybe if he did he'd learn a sense of right and wrong and when to walk away from situations he shouldn't be in.

The perception of GOOD schools is important to LL’s.

The whole picture of schools is dominated by the need for racial integration. It governs public school policies, and consequently whatever education students receive.

My kids received a wholly unsatisfactory education in the Los Angeles Public Schools. My daughter, who was/is a bright (no longer so young) lady, was a star in her high school (except on grades, which were a disaster because she was so much brighter than her teachers and she let them know that). The same high school has since become a charter school and they have now won the national Academic Decathlon 5 years in a row. My daughter, in the meanwhile, had no difficulty being accepted by a very highly selective college on the East Coast, based on her test scores, SINGLE recommendation (from the only teacher who didn't hate her) and a personal interview.

Her daughter, my granddaughter, went to school in Washington, DC where she received an unexpectedly good education, mainly because DC schools had a "reformer" (Michelle Rhee). Her High School [gets money from the magnet program, but specializing in smart kids] education alone would have been enough to qualify her for a place in one of America's best universities (although her test scores [National Merit Scholar], personal interview, recommendations, and record of scientific publication from a high school project at the Smithsonian Institution didn't hurt.

The real purpose of an education is an intellectual one. Social skills need to be taught at home.

We were just speaking about the lack of social interaction last night at my house.

My youngest started Kg in 2001. I sent them outside to play at the park a flock away at 6 and 8 without me. I had friends who could not believe it. We did, why not them?

I had them walking to the library and rec center and 7/8. Call me when you get there, call me when you are leaving.

They rode their bikes to school. I was chewed out by another parent when my son was in 2nd grade because “it is dangerous “. I just glared at her.

My first kid got most of the way through school before cell phones became ubiquitous, and Smartphones weren't invented yet. She has great social skills. One of my favorite memories is of us encouraging her to drop her backpack and throw snowballs back at a younger boy who would pelt her after they got off the bus. That kid was astonished, and ran like blazes (she had a good arm).

Our younger kid was surround by kids with phones, ipods, etc. She wouldn't go to the bus stop until the last possible moment because no one talked to anyone else (Me:"Why don't you start a new bus stop tradition and ask people questions about themselves?" She: "That's stupid.") Nobody pelted anyone else with snowballs, they were all too busy texting as they got off of the bus from middle and high school.