Or I suppose it would be good if you lived in an area with really terrible public schools. I'm not sure why you'd want to raise children in such an area in the first place, though.

It's not always as clear cut as "if it's got bad public schools, it's a terrible place to live anyway". Hardly.

Most people would prefer to send their kids to a good public school all things being equal. But as someone who's gotten their education at public schools, plus also taught in some, not everyone is as lucky as you or I got.