Private School or Public School

If you have kids, value their education, and live in a shitty enough SD to think about going private... have you thought about moving instead of dropping $15k-$20k/year on private school for the next 12 years?

This kindof strikes me as the same thing as spending $100k on fencing, walls, security system and guns to protect your house/family against crime... but not once thinking about just taking that 100k and moving to a nicer low crime area.

Teachers in great SDs arent really better than teachers in middling to bad districts... less beaten down/jaded maybe. The real difference is that great SDs have super involved parents that create a culture of success and prioritize academics. By that same token, i dont think its healthy for the pendulum to swing too far towards prioritizing grades and test scores at the expense of a well rounded, happy and healthy kid.

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Originally Posted by schuss

That's partially what I mean. Schools are often heavily local in what influences them, so good chance of making a difference if you start mobilizing people as changing a shitstain for someone that sees schools as their ticket to reelection is a win.

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The district RF is in spends roughly double the state avg/pupil. It's not locals that are the issue and Idaho does have the money.

We have a unique kid that thrived at a public elementary school. He's very athletic (bump skier, lacrosse and MTB Team), pretty good in school, but has had some physical issues when he was younger that maybe stunted his maturity a touch. As he rolled into 6th, 7th and 8th (at the same school) we saw him losing interest, coming home sad and disinterested and just overall unhappy. My wife and I thought we'd just power through and get him through the 8th grade so he could get to the local high school and hope things would change for the better. In November of his 8th grade year he asked if we could tour one of the two local private schools. It's known as the "hippie" school locally, but really it's just a Waldorf spinoff 6-12th grade outdoor based school. All three of us loved it at first sight and moved him over mid-year.

Fast forward and he's just past 1 year there and he's thriving. Small classes, intimate teachers and constantly outdoors. Never in a million years did I think I'd send my kid to a private school, but in my opinion, certain kids will just fit into an alternative learning environment and some can just cruise through a traditional high school and be just fine. I think my kiddo would have been eaten alive at the local high school and instead he's loving school while chasing his mogul dreams! Long story short, I think it's a kid by kid decision and hopefully you have options where you live. When I was growing up in Bend, it was one high school or the other. Take your pick...

Good privates are $30-40k here hence the school district conversation.

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Originally Posted by californiagrown

If you have kids, value their education, and live in a shitty enough SD to think about going private... have you thought about moving instead of dropping $15k-$20k/year on private school for the next 12 years?

This kindof strikes me as the same thing as spending $100k on fencing, walls, security system and guns to protect your house/family against crime... but not once thinking about just taking that 100k and moving to a nicer low crime area.

Teachers in great SDs arent really better than teachers in middling to bad districts... less beaten down/jaded maybe. The real difference is that great SDs have super involved parents that create a culture of success and prioritize academics. By that same token, i dont think its healthy for the pendulum to swing too far towards prioritizing grades and test scores at the expense of a well rounded, happy and healthy kid.

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Originally Posted by mcski

Esseff - I think my daughter was in that same class

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That would be in the super low quality San Francisco United School District. The school was Alamo - a pretty good school all things considered. A district so bad they have refused to teach 8th graders beginning algebra. Now, after public shaming and pressure, they were forced to create a 'study group' this year on how to incorporate it into their curriculum. All this after refusing for decades as its 'too hard' aka the majority of our students will fail and we'll lose out on some funding.

And yes, I'm sure you are shocked a town like this has a school with the war-mongering, violent name of 'Alamo' and it has not yet been changed to Daisy Elementary or Frida Kahlo school.

Esseff- well there still hope for replacing that warmonger name. The renaming nonsense wasn’t dropped completely just tabled indefinitely. Mine was at Balboa. And that was the health teacher there lol. You can only laugh at some point. Our elementary was great and we’ve had great teachers along the way but I found that if the kid has some self motivation it works out fine. If they don’t. They’re screwed

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Originally Posted by Hopeless Sinner

The district RF is in spends roughly double the state avg/pupil. It's not locals that are the issue and Idaho does have the money.

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Oh, so shitty retirees or maleducated people who don't believe in them there school learnin'?

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Originally Posted by schuss

Oh, so shitty retirees or maleducated people who don't believe in them there school learnin'?

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Homeschoolers who dont want taxes, and who dont want the gubbmint brainwashing their kids.

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Originally Posted by schuss

Oh, so shitty retirees or maleducated people who don't believe in them there school learnin'?

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It never used to be that way, but it is now. Public colleges were free back in the day. Those type of folks are flocking here now, trying to get away from the libs.

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Originally Posted by Hopeless Sinner

It never used to be that way, but it is now. Public colleges were free back in the day. Those type of folks are flocking here now, trying to get away from the libs.

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I'm so sorry.

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Originally Posted by californiagrown

Homeschoolers who dont want taxes, and who dont want the gubbmint brainwashing their kids.

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We fit that description, right?

Hopeless is right. My wife got all fired up and went to a district meeting. She said it was an echo chamber. Everyone here values education and are willing to pay higher taxes for it and the district gets it. Unfortunately, Idaho as a whole is one of the dumbest states and hellbent on winning the world cup of stupid.

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Originally Posted by mcski

Esseff- well there still hope for replacing that warmonger name. The renaming nonsense wasn’t dropped completely just tabled indefinitely. Mine was at Balboa. And that was the health teacher there lol. You can only laugh at some point. Our elementary was great and we’ve had great teachers along the way but I found that if the kid has some self motivation it works out fine. If they don’t. They’re screwed

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This city needs more charters to make SFUSD compete for kids. Unfortunately the district and union think the state funding per head is ‘their’ money. Space for charters is hard to find and the city won’t lift a finger to help a charter as they back the teachers union and district.

I grew up in a strong public school district, then as a result of that strong district, was able to get a scholarship to go to an even better private high school. I came from a blue collar family that managed to swing buying the crappiest house in that school district, and it paid off for me.

IME both have pros and cons. I really enjoyed the private school classroom environment, as well as the ability to explore topics to a much further extent than in a public setting. That said, the environment was pretty homogenous in private school. That mostly was a benefit, as every kid came from a household that valued education, and was willing to invest in that, and that pays dividends for students overall. On the flip side, even though they did not waste a single moment to shout how diverse they were, I found there to be almost none of it, because everyone, regardless of race or class, came from a personal household environment that was basically the same. Dual parent households. Strong work ethic. Do you homework. Study hard. Strive for the best college you can get into. At the end of the day, the value system we all grew up with was the same, and as a result, there wasn't a whole lot of diversity of thought when push came to shove.

Don't get me wrong, that is a value system that overall leads to pretty decent outcomes, but I also think it breeds a certain lack of perspective in a lot of ways. I think you see that problem manifest itself a lot in today's modern bifurcated society where people continually talk past each other because they have zero perception of the life experience of others.

^ nice post

I'll be looking at private high schools soon even though my son is only in first grade. We have him in one of the best public elementary schools in Sacramento. The public middle school is good as well. But a conversation with a high school health professional at my gym has me reconsider the Sacramento high schools. He said that half of the 600 graduating students at his high school don't get diplomas, that they receive a certificate of attendance. Of the 300 students getting diplomas, only 80 of them qualify for a 4 year university. The amount of behavioral problems the other students cause means there's no time to teach the curriculum. And when they go to hire teachers, they pass on the teacher with decades of experience for the college graduate with no experience as they only consider the starting salary to save $30K.

^^^ A lot can change in 8 years.

Like getting worse?

It can possibly get worse over time, but can also change for the better. Improvements can take longer to be effective.

But strong parent support networks (PTA/C) can make a huge difference fairly quickly. Change in board members and administrators can result in changes that take longer to see the effect. In California, there are some big picture problems where corrections are slowly being worked on from local through state gov levels like HS drop rates, chronic absenteeism, the growing number of those qualifying for special Ed, overall student emotional well being, and $$, which is very tied to those qualifying for special Ed. Hopefully, other states and local school govs are acknowledging the problems and ID’ing solutions.

You could be proactive by holding the boards feet to the fire.

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Originally Posted by bodywhomper

^^^ A lot can change in 8 years.

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My dad was a public school superintendent and his maxim was in 5 yrs theres a lot of change. He was pretty spot on from what I’ve seen around our district

I had a horrible freshman year at a Jesuit HS. Got pretty much Cs and Ds. Switched to a decent suburban public HS for sophomore year. Grades got a little better that year and took off my Jr yr. Mainly because a single teacher saw some ability and encouraged me. There’s a lot of downsides to some of the private schools that are not always obvious.

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Originally Posted by Gerome

I'll be looking at private high schools soon even though my son is only in first grade. We have him in one of the best public elementary schools in Sacramento. The public middle school is good as well. But a conversation with a high school health professional at my gym has me reconsider the Sacramento high schools. He said that half of the 600 graduating students at his high school don't get diplomas, that they receive a certificate of attendance. Of the 300 students getting diplomas, only 80 of them qualify for a 4 year university. The amount of behavioral problems the other students cause means there's no time to teach the curriculum. And when they go to hire teachers, they pass on the teacher with decades of experience for the college graduate with no experience as they only consider the starting salary to save $30K.

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Would your kid be attending that high school ? That's a very tunnel visions statement about one particular high school. My guess is the school is probably in an area with lower socioeconomic setting. I'm not opposed to private schools by any means but judging a school district based on a statement of an employee at one high school seems a bit tunnel visioned. My guess is in the greater Sac area there are some fine public high schools that crank out better numbers than what you have been quoted. Keep in mind in 11 years ALOT can change , especially if you have rapid gentrification where parents embrace public education.
I have 3 kids that graduated from an urban high school with some mixed numbers but they have a strong IB program and all three have done very well in college. In our local school you can be as much of a fuck us as you want or end up going to the truly top tier colleges in the US. My oldest/youngest both went to State schools because that's what they want ed. My middle was a over worked, high achiever that went to a fairly prestigious college along with 5-6 kids from her classes ending up at Stanford and Harvard. It's all what you make of it and help your kids curiosity grow.
Having seen friends who kids have attended private high schools they tend to me similar.im curriculum. The main difference I observed was the socioeconomic/diversity is much more in the middle.
As long as you have a kid with natural curiosity with appetite for learning they will thrive in most settings as long as the parents are willing to help the process especially in the early years. I don't actually remember telling any of my kids to study after about 6-7th grade so was very lucky.

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Originally Posted by Gerome

I'll be looking at private high schools soon even though my son is only in first grade. We have him in one of the best public elementary schools in Sacramento. The public middle school is good as well. But a conversation with a high school health professional at my gym has me reconsider the Sacramento high schools. He said that half of the 600 graduating students at his high school don't get diplomas, that they receive a certificate of attendance. Of the 300 students getting diplomas, only 80 of them qualify for a 4 year university. The amount of behavioral problems the other students cause means there's no time to teach the curriculum. And when they go to hire teachers, they pass on the teacher with decades of experience for the college graduate with no experience as they only consider the starting salary to save $30K.

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That high school sounds ghetto as fuck. So if that is your feeder school, you must also live in a socioeconomically depressed area... but then how can you afford +$150k for high school? Something isnt adding up here.

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Originally Posted by californiagrown

That high school sounds ghetto as fuck. So if that is your feeder school, you must also live in a socioeconomically depressed area... but then how can you afford +$150k for high school? Something isnt adding up here.

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Not necessarily. There are absolutely public schools that fit this bill outside economically depressed areas, especially with the accelerated gentrification we've all seen. While this sounds pretty bad, many of the metro PDX schools were similar back in the day. Not sure about now...

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Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater

Not necessarily. There are absolutely public schools that fit this bill outside economically depressed areas, especially with the accelerated gentrification we've all seen. While this sounds pretty bad, many of the metro PDX schools were similar back in the day. Not sure about now...

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I'm a native PDX kid since the early 70's and thing have NEVER been that bad across the board. If you lived in the burbs of PDX there has always been fear of the urban environment.West side always thumbed their noses to the east side but it's just 60 year old perception . My kids went to college with quite a few kids that were straight up afraid of coming into the city because their families watched too much TV and thought they were going to get car jacked and then sexually traffic'd.