Best Places to Raise Your Kids' Raises a Ruckus

By Douglas MacMillan

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Few subjects, it seems, are of more passionate interest to our readers than how to raise their kids. After BusinessWeek.com posted its first annual Best Places to Raise Your Kids list in November, the reaction was fast and furious. The report, our most popular online story ever, garnered over 22 million page views and more than 500 reader responses. While some applauded our choices, others were appalled.

"I guess we're all supposed to pick up, saddle up the horses, and move out to Nebraska," reader John Sasko said—a reference to the 11 Nebraska hamlets, all with populations under 2,500, on the list. As Sasko and others pointed out, we didn't reward towns for ethnic diversity or for ample employment opportunities, factors that would favor more urban places. Indeed, most of the top 50 places are small towns in the Midwest.

To create the list, we teamed up with New York real estate researcher OnBoard, which tracks data on some 25,000 towns, suburbs, and other locales in the U.S. The firm winnowed the pool to 500 towns with the highest test scores and lowest crime rates. We then pared that list to the 50 that fared best in each of five categories (in order of weight): test scores and crime (equally weighted), cost of living, recreational and cultural activities, and number of schools.

Readers debated more than Nebraska, and the extended online conversation raised points we hadn't considered when determining what goes into a great place for parents and kids. Here's how the war of words went for the five towns that generated the most responses online.

1. Groesbeck, OH

Population: 7.207

Nearest city: Cincinnati (7 miles)

Median household income: $49,235

Top category: Number of schools

This unincorporated suburb of Cincinnati was tops on our list because it has superb schools and is less than a half-hour drive from attractions such as the Cincinnati Zoo and Kings Island amusement park. But some took issue with the town's lack of diversity. "Groesbeck is 92% white, which makes it a great place to raise white kids—not so much if you're a person of color," noted a reader with the handle "party is over in cincity," citing statistics from the 2000 U.S. Census.

While some credit for Groesbeck's top marks goes to nearby Saint James School—a private elementary school honored for the fourth time in 2007 by the No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools Program—one reader warned of what can be an inverse relationship between test scores and diversity. "Using No Child Left Behind rankings as criteria instantly wipes out any areas with a sizable new immigrant population (new to English equals lower reading scores)," said a reader going by the screen name NJL.

3. Deerfield, IL

Population: 18,420

Nearest city: Chicago (27 miles)

Median household income: $107,194

Top category: Recreational/cultural activities

Some readers raved about Western Springs and Deerfield, the affluent suburbs of Chicago that ranked Nos. 2 and 3. "Our neighbors are great, our schools are fantastic, we have plenty of green space, and we're only 20 minutes from all the cultural amenities of downtown Chicago. What's not to like?" said John Jeanneret.

Well, for some it's the cost of living. The Illinois towns we listed are "far too expensive for most median-income families to even afford a small condo," said Rose, adding that "property taxes can easily break $20,000 a year." And one Deerfield resident going by "ns" said "Chicagoland has the highest gas prices in the country." (In fact, gas prices in Chicago are lower, on average, than in cities such as New York and Los Angeles, according to AAA, though they are higher than the national average.)

5. Arapahoe, NE

Population: 1,028

Nearest city: Lincoln (192 miles)

Median household income: $28,500

Top category: Number of schools

Nebraska towns dominated our list largely because the cost of living is so low. An Arapahoe resident with the handle "Small towns rock" said a night at the movies costs her family of five $20. "