Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is becoming a free agent. Among the perks is having his pick of good stadiums and good public school districts, including some in California. But just how good are those schools? As a new PRI book puts it, Not as Good as You Think.

This is a common line of reasoning for parents. While Schilling’s $13 million a year salary clearly puts him at an advantage over most other families, parental concern regarding the educational welfare of their children is a leading factor when choosing a new home, regardless of family income. Many parents think that there is a direct correlation between high-value homes and well-performing schools. The evidence tells a different story.

Thankfully, based on the latest research from the Pacific Research Institute the myth of the superior suburban school has been exposed. In the book, Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice, scholars Lance Izumi, Vicki Murray, and Rachel Chaney have found that at hundreds of California schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods, more than half of the students in at least one grade are performing below the state’s proficiency standards for reading or math. Such poor performance should be of grave concern to someone such as Curt Schilling who has expressed interest in playing for California based teams the San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angles.

While my New England roots hope that Curt Schilling can reach a one year contract with the Red Sox and finish up his career in the city where his amazing performances have been etched into sports history, pragmatism suggests that he might move on. If Schilling does decide to move on and commit to a California baseball franchise, he and other parents would do well to reference the insightful book Not as Good as You Think.