Public or Private?

[Admin]

What kind of school do your kids go to? If you could afford it, would you want them to go to a private school?

[Tx_Wahm]

I send my three kids to public school but if I could afford to send them to private school I would do it in a heart beat. I my self started out in public school and finished in private and very glad I did.

[Kristie]

I only have one of my six in school right now. She goes to a public school, but dad would rather her be in a private school. They have a better student/teacher ratio. Better education.

[ANGSWIN]

I love being a public school teacher, but I will admit that private schools offer a couple of advantages that public schools do not.

Class size - Private schools have MUCH smaller classes than public ones. This past school year I taught an average of 33 students per class. That is difficult.

Student population - private schools can pick and choose which students to accept. Public schools are REQUIRED to accept anyone in their districts.

Parent Interest - Since parents are paying for their children to go there, they are more likely to be involved with child's behavior, etc.

There are a couple of disadvantages as well.

Teacher pay - As sad as it may seem, most private schools are unable to pay teachers what they would make working for the state.

Real world experience - I believe that public schools offer a more realistic aspect of what life is really like (see private school advantages.)

[Princess_clutter]

My son will finally be entering Middle School this year. He was retained in Kindergarden and third grade. In second grade, they finally gave in to my hounding that he needed extra help and he started to get it, until the migrants came and they "need help more then he did". He should have failed 3rd again and 4th and 5th but since he had already been held back twice, he had a free ride until this coming school year (which starts in 18 days!!!). We did change schools and they did testing on him and learned he has a processing learning disability. Even though we found something that helped him read... light green sunglasses kept the words from jumping off the page and improved his reading level almost overnight (1.2 to 2.9 in third grade 2nd time around), he was teased about wearing them and stopped wearing them. I had even spoken and emailed each teacher to remind them the glasses may not be prescribtion, but HE NEEDED them to read. His Social Studies teacher wouldn't let him wear them and since he was being teased without end, even when I finally got it through her thick head that it was neccasary and had the paper work with his special needs teacher to prove it, he would wear them.

If I could move them to private school, I would have already done it.

[kttrusty]

I had my children in Private and Catholic Schools for most of their schooling. This past year, I switched my son, who is a high school senior, over to public schooling b/c the school in our district was pretty good and my 2 daughters (10 & 6) are in a Charter school (which is publicly funded, but privately run). I am very pleased with the education that they are getting and plan to send the girls back in September.

[Manno]

Well, our situtation this year is a little bit of both. Our oldest son my 8 1/2 year old who will be in third grade this fall will most likely go back to Private School as he was there last year. As my daughter will most likely fo to Public school as we cannot afford to send them both because it would end up being somewhere like $5000 for the year for both of them to go.

[JoyfulHomeAndFamily]

Since my oldest is just getting ready to enter preschool this Fall, this is a new issue for me. We live in an area that has a pretty good public school system. Still, if I could afford to put her in private school, I would.

When I started looking at preschools for her, another mom from my daughter's ballet class recommended a small private preschool just down the road. So I gave them a call. I nearly fell off my chair when they told me the tuition: $1100 per month. For preschool?!?!

Blessings,
Christy

[kgaddy]

Our grandson went through kindergarten at a private school and will be returning there for 1st grade. Our local schools are not very good and children are constantly switching schools from year to year.
We are well pleased with the private school. The classes are diverse and smaller, there is a music program, several sports programs, and the teachers keep everyone well informed.

[deekvee]

My kids go to public school - I have considered private a few different times - but my children seem to prefer public. We have been blessed with good schools in this area though, so I don't mind. If we ever moved somewhere that was questionable - they would be in private in a heartbeat though!

My Best,