I don't know the environment you are anticipating, the issue for my kids was their bikes being stolen - completely or in pieces. As a result, both road old, nasty looking bikes that were actually pretty nice under the rust but appeared to be pulled from the dump. Even so, they lost wheels. To think it's socio-economic is a false assumption, I'm taking about exclusive schools with very low crime. So, I'd say invest in a beater for school...anything nicer is simply a target.