Why do you need to send your kids to the best high schools? Save the fucking money, spend it on after-school enrichment programs, books, and travel with the kids.
States like CA, NY, and NJ tend to have good public universities that aren’t hard to get into if you’re in-state. Why shoot for Stanford, Hah-vahd, Princeton, or Yale when you can send kids to an decent but not top public school system, have them get good grades, and have them go to a public university. High-end private universities are better for grad school.
I’d sooner my kids finish Rutgers, SUNY, SDSU, or one of the UC schools with low debt than graduate with a basket-weaving degree from Hahvahd.