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Private School vs Public School?

jspangs

jspangs

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So my wife and I are having a Dilemma about schools. Our first of 4 kids starts Kindergarten next year so it's kinda becoming crunch time for a decision being sign ups for both are in 2 weeks.

So I was wondering if anyone could give me some pros and cons of their experience or why they went the route they did.


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I went to Private School for High School, and I wouldn't change a thing. I absolutely loved it. The education, principles I learned, friends I made, were all incredible.

I would say the main con would just be cost.
 
I think this comes down to your reasons of wanting Private school instead of Public. Your kids will get out what they put in from either school. Do you have the money for private school? Do you have the money for private school for all 4 kids?

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I went to public school through 8th grade and then moved to a private high school.

I kind of went into it thinking my kids would go to private school. However, private schools are so darned expensive now, I just can't afford to have two kids in private school. Ironically enough, the reason is because I make too much money. I earn too much to qualify for any of the financial aid or scholarships that many private schools offer. However, I don't make enough to be able to afford it out of pocket.

In general, I would prefer to send my kids to private school. I do think the curriculum is a bit better. In terms of negatives, often there's no bus service for private schools, so you or your wife will be driving them to school and picking them up every day. Additionally, there's not as much racial or socioeconomic differences in private school, so you have to guard against your kids getting a distorted view of what life is like. That said, I do think private schools include more races, cultures and economic differences than they used to, so I'm not sure it's quite as dramatic a difference as it once was.

Fortunately, we're blessed with an outstanding public school system here, so although I would put my kids in private school if I could afford it, I don't think the difference is enough that I'm losing sleep over it.
 
I attended private school my whole life - catholic grade school and boys catholic high school and then Washington University in St. Louis for my BS and MBA. We plan on sending our kids to private catholic school. Around here, what we are seeing is that public schools do a great job teaching all kinds of students. Private schools struggle if the child is either exceptionally gifted or has major learning disorders.

Growing up, there were two religions - the Catholics and the Publics.
 
A possible con to private school is the commute time.

I commuted over an hour each way to high school. This restricted my access to extracurricular activities. I might have played football and hockey but adding the commute time and homework would have made sleep time difficult.

It does depend on the local public schools however; if the local schools are good there may be limited benefit to the private schools but all private schools are not created equal either.
 
bogeyme said:
I think this comes down to your reasons of wanting Private school instead of Public. Your kids will get out what they put in from either school. Do you have the money for private school? Do you have the money for private school for all 4 kids?

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Well it's comes down to I'm not opposed to Private even though I never went to a private school. My wife did and would really like to do it for the kids. The only downside I've seen is we just built a new house in a good school district outside the city of Grand Rapids. We are in a growing school district with the class size of already about 350 ( my class size was about 110). Also with our school district being a school of choice there is the possibility of our kids having to drive right by the Elementary school by our house( best one in the district) and taking them to the school across town. I feel like if we are already driving 30 mins we should go to the school we really want.

Also cost isn't astronomical because the Catholic school she wants to sent them to, caps the amount you spend so it's achievable financially, but that school is only K-8. It seems the High School will be substantially more. So I've told my wife that if we do that I don't know how much we will be able to put away for their college.


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I would looks the learning environment, course curriculum and the culture around the schools. I have some friends who sacrifice certain things to be able to send their kids to private school because they don't like the common core stuff being taught in the school system. One chose catholic high school for their kid to avoids a lot of the nonsense with some of the indoctrination seen in some school systems
 
jspangs said:
Well it's comes down to I'm not opposed to Private even though I never went to a private school. My wife did and would really like to do it for the kids. The only downside I've seen is we just built a new house in a good school district outside the city of Grand Rapids. We are in a growing school district with the class size of already about 350 ( my class size was about 110). Also with our school district being a school of choice there is the possibility of our kids having to drive right by the Elementary school by our house( best one in the district) and taking them to the school across town. I feel like if we are already driving 30 mins we should go to the school we really want.

Also cost isn't astronomical because the Catholic school she wants to sent them to, caps the amount you spend so it's achievable financially, but that school is only K-8. It seems the High School will be substantially more. So I've told my wife that if we do that I don't know how much we will be able to put away for their college.


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If it turned out that they went to the private school K-8 and then moved to the public school for high school that could be tough. My family growing up moved to a new school district the summer before 8th grade and it made for a somewhat difficult transition. Who knows what will happen, right?

Dave
 
dthrog00 said:
If it turned out that they went to the private school K-8 and then moved to the public school for high school that could be tough. My family growing up moved to a new school district the summer before 8th grade and it made for a somewhat difficult transition. Who knows what will happen, right?

Dave
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I agree 100% that's what makes the decision so tough. It's a decision for 9 years from now. It would be unfair to send them private to go to public, setting them back in every social aspect of school.


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I went to pubic schools and never had children. If I had children today, they would be going to a private school if I could afford it.
 
This is a tough decision. My wife and I were private school kids and my daughter is a private school kid. Pros and Cons will vary by individual. I would assess the public school systems in your area to see how they rate. In my area, I wouldn't send my daughter to the public school we are zoned to attend. I have also heard from parents that went to private middle school with my daughter and this year put their kids in public high school are finding that their kids are academically ahead of their classmates. In my state, every student has to pass the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests to graduate public school so they are basically taught the test and don't investigate topics outside of the test. In private school my daughter and her class explore other aspects of topics even if it isn't in the curriculum.

Cost is definitely a consideration. But the biggest aspect of your child's education is you and your involvement. Don't expect the schools to do everything you must be involved and be an advocate for your child. Today's parents seem to think that it is the schools responsibility to do everything and complain when the child is struggling. This is not a public or private consideration, but either way make sure you help make sure they get a good education.
 
I went to private school from K-8 and then went to public High School. The transition was not tough at all, we had been prepared for the transition because the school I went to only went up to 8th grade. I wanted my children to go to private school, but with 3 of them, it was just too costly around here.

We tried sending our kids to a Charter School for a couple years and it was worse than public school. There were more behavioral problems and the faculty would not address them for financial reasons.
 
i think it depends on where you live, both my wife & I went to public schools, but where we live we chose to send our son to Private school
 
jhstew1 said:
i think it depends on where you live, both my wife & I went to public schools, but where we live we chose to send our son to Private school
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Well I think what makes the decision harder is both schools are highly rated. To me 1500 kids in a high school is huge and the 650 kids in the private school seems much more reasonable. But I could be blowing the numbers out of proportion because my high school had 500 kids in it.


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I loved public school. I could write a novel why but when they are old enough I would let them make the choice.

There are definitely pros and cons to both.

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JRod said:
I loved public school. I could write a novel why but when they are old enough I would let them make the choice.

There are definitely pros and cons to both.

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Well the decision needs to be made in two weeks, lol. I had no problems with public school and private wasn't even an option where I grew up. But as I said before we also only had 500 kids in the whole high school and the public school here has close to that per class.


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jspangs said:
Well I think what makes the decision harder is both schools are highly rated. To me 1500 kids in a high school is huge and the 650 kids in the private school seems much more reasonable. But I could be blowing the numbers out of proportion because my high school had 500 kids in it.


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Student to Teacher ratio is really the useful number that should be compared instead. The number of kids means nothing if they have the faculty to handle them properly.
 
I went public my whole life. Utah is known to have good schools but we don't spend a ton on our students. Private wasn't even an option for my family. They've started charter schools here where they are funded by the government but ran by a private "entity" I guess you could say. They seem to be doing really well for the kids last I heard.

My high school was small for the area and we had 2200 kids my senior year.
 
I went to public through 8th, then Catholic high school, mainly because the public system was only average. I'm in a similar situation, as my wife is pushing for private school with our kids, but we live in one of the best school districts in the country, so I don't see the cost of private justifying itself. We'll see what happens.
 
I went to public school all the way and have my kids in public school. I view it as there being problems to be addressed regardless of the avenue...just different problems at least at the high school level.
 
jspangs said:
Well the decision needs to be made in two weeks, lol. I had no problems with public school and private wasn't even an option where I grew up. But as I said before we also only had 500 kids in the whole high school and the public school here has close to that per class.


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I meant when they are old enough to decide obviously.

I would personally find a good public district in my area if available but you can find arguments either way.

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I teach public, and I can safely say my daughter will go private if possible since we will be able to afford it.

If you can afford it, go private.
 
It could be where we live but my wife and both went to public and enjoyed it. Both of my kids will go to public as well. The local school district is excellent.
 
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