2025 Compare Cities Education:
Santa Cruz, CA vs Half Moon Bay, CA

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Highlights
- Half Moon Bay spends 22.8% more per student than Santa Cruz.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 9.4% lower in Half Moon Bay than in Santa Cruz. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Half Moon Bay had 8.2% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Santa Cruz
 Santa Cruz, CAHalf Moon Bay, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$20,087$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$13,552  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$9,271$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio21.84  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock80554573
 Students per Counselor473  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock8.5%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.1.9%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock87.9%88.9%
 Some College Educ.19.7%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock7.7%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.56.6%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock13.6%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.9%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock4.4%1.5%
Reviews for Santa Cruz    44 Reviews

I lived in the Santa Cruz area for 20 years. UCSC alum. Our kids were born there. There are wonderful things about Santa Cruz, but also many serious problems that we  More

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Over 5 years ago

I have been here for four generations! My kids are the fifth. I guess that should tell you how wonderful it is here, at least for us. It's so cool to have world class  More

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I was born over the hill in San Jose area, and as a kid I loved coming over to the boardwalk. Santa Cruz has always been and always will be a town of diversity,  More

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Reviews for Half Moon Bay    3 Reviews

HMB has one of the best climates in the world. It also has some very good restaurants. You have the ocean on one side and scenic foothills to the east.It would be heaven  More

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Over 19 years ago

Rural coastal living in a great community close to San Francisco and Silicon  More

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Over 20 years ago

I lived in HMB for 17 years and loved (almost) every minute there. Beautiful hills to the east of the town and the Pacific ocean to the west. Close to San Francisco,  More

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