Attracting young families to Fountain Hills is essential for revitalizing our town and growing our economic base. Families move to towns where education is strong and is widely supported by the community because they know education is a key to their children’s future success (Mover.com, “What Makes People Move,” 2009).
Not surprisingly, this is supported by many studies. According to Realtor.com, education was a key factor in how young families chose where to live (“3 Reasons Why People Move,” 2015). Education and excellent public schools ranked fourth out of 31 features in how people decided where to locate (Professor William Anderson, “Location Decision-Making Survey,” 2008).
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Fountain Hills were known as the education town? It could happen with the right support. Recently, U.S. News and World Report ranked over 22,000 public high schools and awarded gold (top 2.5 percent), silver (top 10 percent) and bronze medals (top 16 percent) to schools indicating how well they prepared students for college. Fountain Hills High School received two silver medals, both in Arizona and nationally.
We need to build on this success and here’s what we can do. In the short-term, vote “yes” on Nov. 7 for the FHUSD Maintenance and Operations Override. For the long-term, we need to develop a clear, strategic vision for making Fountain Hills the education town.
