A threat to our schools — and my property

There is little doubt that my wife and I overpaid for our home. When we were looking for a house to buy a decade ago, we had one search criterion in mind –– the schools had to be excellent. Period. And, like so many Long Island parents who want the best for their children, we were willing to pay premium dollar for a neighborhood with great schools.

Yes, the community had to be safe, but we knew that outstanding schools are generally located in low-crime areas, so we weren’t as worried about the burglary and petit larceny rates as we were about elementary music and high school science programs.

We moved to Merrick in June 2002. Our children now go to Levy-Lakeside Elementary School, and will attend Merrick Avenue Middle School and Kennedy High School in Bellmore.

To be able to buy into a neighborhood with top-notch schools, we bought a fixer-upper and spent nine years redoing it. We knew that we could have bought a newer home for less money elsewhere. But as they say in the real estate business, price is determined not by what you’re selling, but by location. One-bedroom apartments go for $1 million-plus in Manhattan because they’re in the heart of the universe, not because they offer greater accoutrements than anywhere else.

What South Shore suburbs like Merrick offer is a lot less concrete, slightly fresher air and a shorter drive to Jones Beach than Manhattan. But their primary selling point is their schools.

For decades, our boards of education have served as guardians at the gate, protecting our schools from the forces that threaten to, if not destroy them, wound them. When the state unfairly cut education aid to Long Island districts over the past decade, our school boards made the difficult –– and unpopular –– decision to raise local property taxes to maintain student services. And their investment in the schools has paid dividends. After the worst, most prolonged downturn in the housing market that the nation has seen since the Great Depression, my home –– my three-bedroom, one-bathroom handyman’s special –– is worth significantly more than my wife and I paid for it. Why? The schools.