Washington DC: Does anyone like it there?

You've heard some incorrect information about the public schools. In DC itself, many of the public schools are terrible (although serious work is underway to improve them). In the suburbs, though, you'll find some of the best public schools in the nation, in places such as Montgomery County, Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax Counties. In Prince George County (Maryland), the situation is mixed: there are some excellent schools and some so-so schools. It's possible to use the Internet to look at the performance of individual schools, just google the county's name and "public schools" and you'll find out how each school does on the standardized performance tests.