We live in a small farm community with an average graduating class size of 80. Yes, there are some families with money but I don’t think the average income is that high.
The parents here are very involved in their kids lives, based on the attendance I see at local sporting events and plays and concerts. The school parking lot is always packed for stuff like that. The teachers also have high expectations from the students both academically and behavior wise, from what I’ve seen from my kids in high school and other parents have told me about.
This public school is regularly sending kids to Harvard, Syracuse University, Clarkson, RIT, RPI, to name a few.
You’re lucky — parents involved is also a key factor. In affluent communities the parents scream like stuck pigs if SAT scores drop a quarter point. This isn’t “all of the children,” either. They realize home prices are tied to SAT schools and the quality of the schools.
The bottomline remains the same — education is expensive. It’s a “get what you pay for” world and education is no exception.