Public schooling is best in these US cities
When people are looking to buy a house, one of the first questions they ask is about the public schools in the community. In fact, for fewer than 1 in 5 (16%) homebuyers, the quality of the school district is a key factor in a purchasing decision, according to a 2025 National Association of Realtors survey. For people in the age ranges most likely to have school-age children, it's even more important: Twenty-nine percent of buyers ages 26 to 34 and 34% of buyers ages 35 to 44 consider school quality an important factor, the survey found.
This is why access to good public schools is extremely valuable, particularly in light of President Donald Trump's executive orders regarding education. In March 2025, Trump signed an order to dismantle the Department of Education, a federal body that oversees education nationwide and provides funding for specific programs. Gutting the Department of Education could have massive consequences for countless students and their families; for example, in the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the department earmarked nearly $18.4 billion in funding for low-income school districts—money that may soon no longer be available to communities in need. Then, in April 2025, Trump signed bills pushing for using artificial intelligence in the classroom and attacking public schools' diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
As a result of these sweeping changes, public education may soon look vastly different. For now, though, Stacker used data from Niche to look at the 25 cities with the best school districts in the United States. Niche used their individual public schools' ranking data to identify the leading cities, weighted based on their student populations. The overall Niche grade is also included, which scores the city more generally as a place to live.
Of the top 25 districts in the United States, 11 are in California, five are in Texas, and two are in Virginia. Seven states each have one of the top districts: Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington.
