I waited a day to post on this story from the Times about families who bolted from the city because they wanted better public schools, but then ended up enrolling their kids in exclusive private schools because the suburban public schools aren't as good as they imagined. I waited because I'm still not sure what to make of it. I have all sorts of thoughts, all over the map:

1. One of the raps on No Child Left Behind is that some legendary suburban districts (with high property taxes and very rich Realtors) end up failing to make AYP. If these great schools are "failing," there must be something wrong with the law, the knock goes. But what if these savvy parents are making informed judgments themselves about the quality of some of our suburban schools and are reaching the same conclusions as NCLB?

2. Or are these parents snooty nutcases? They could very well be.

3. This line in the story shows how numb we've become in terms of our low-expectations for the city's schools: "Like the Ophirs, many New Yorkers with the means to do so flee the city when they have children, seeing the suburbs as a way to stay committed to public education without compromising their standards for safety and academics." We -- all of us, including the NY Times -- just casually accept the fact that if we stay in the city, our kids will likely get roughed up and they won't learn as much as they could elsewhere. That's pathetic.

4. These parents find their suburban public schools "uninspiring" and "unresponsive." Here is where the city should be kicking ass. If our city public schools could prove they are responsive to the needs of kids/families (lots of people are working on it, but we're not even close), selling public education in the city for being inspiring would be a cinch. As Erin Dillon notes at the Quick and the Ed, this is where some of the better city public schools excel. Great, diverse student populations, opportunities to participate in partnerships with city institutions in the arts, science, etc. It's the glimmers of hope that make NYC schools so frustrating because you know the system could do much more to make the overall experience more palatable for all families, rather than just having these small pockets of success. We've got many of the right/best ingredients, we just can't make a meal that is capable of feeding everyone.

5. Assuming this suburban displeasure phenomenon is real -- and there are quotes in the story from suburban superintendents who insist it is not -- what are the political implications?