The Austin area is one of the 'most educated' areas of the US. We lived in Barton Hills near downtown and most kid are several years ahead of grade level and 99% parental involvement with a Art History program. We had incredible teachers. My daughter was four years ahead when we moved here - and they really had no gifted program since most students were so high. They did "modified grouping" often, which meant that the kids five years ahead were in one class and four years ahead were in another. There were three teachers per grade. They take transfer students.
My daughter had several incredible magnet schools to choose from - Kealing and Fulmore for Middle School. One was science and the other Humanities and Law.
However, there are bad schools around also. And there are outlying districts which are excellent. Music and Art are really important in Austin. In the outlying districts, football and sports are a little more important.
This all depends on where you are going and what your personality is like. Many of our parents were professors at one of the universities.
