Catholic School?

[Figment's Girl]

My DS11 will be going into 6th grade in the fall and has been attending private school since 2nd. Despite the fact that money is tight, we would not have it any other way. He gets good grades but struggles and is very small for his age so the smaller intimate school is better. Around here, there is no such thing as a public elementary school where you stay at one school for your elementary school career. They have K-3, 4-5, and then middle school. At his current school we know most of the families and the kids every year.

I'm shocked to read some of the other posts on the thread regarding the classroom sizes. In the two states we lived in, the public schools had average class sizes of 25 where his catholic school averages 20. And his is only 16.

I don't have anything wrong with public schools, my husband is a public school teacher.

 

[sk!mom]

If putting your child in private school would make things tight what would happen if things got tighter? If your public school district is good then I would stick with them. In Texas there is a limit set for how many students can be in a class and it varies by age/grade. The higher the grade the more students allowed and I beleive that Kinder and 1st are the same or very close. Good luck.

Texas limits class size to 22 through 4th grade.

 

[toystorymom]

We were just having this conversation in our family last night. It depends on the schools and of course, the child.

Public schools have to follow all kinds of federal regulations and offer services for special education that private schools do not. Something to consider if your child needs such services. Class size also depends on the school, my mother teaches in a Catholic school, she has 14 students in her class, my kids have about 23 in their public school classes.

Our oldest is in middle school and we are considering sending him to private high school when the time comes. Our district is getting killed with budget cuts and they keep saying the next few years will be worse. After playing a sport all 3 seasons this year, the school has now cut all sports for next year. He is so disappointed. He is extremely smart and I am just not sure he is being challenged like he should be. I am starting to not recognize this school system anymore. Around here though, the private schools (there are 3 that come to mind, which all happen to be Catholic schools) are more like $10-15,000! I don't know where we would come up with that kind of money, especially since I lost my job last week. Did I mention I worked for our public school system?

 

[carj]

We sent our children to an Episcopal school fo preschool and considered leaving them there for elementary school. We ended up putting them in our amazing public school instead. Here are the reasons why we chose public school. Keep in mind that I am referring to our specific schools, not making public/private generalizations..

The biggest reason for us was social. Our son was in a class with 18 kids, which was smaller than his public school class was at 22 kids. There were 3 children who were just not very nice. Without going into details, I will just say that I was unwilling to subject my son to their company for the next 6 years. He would have been with the same kids for the entire time at that school, which some people like but I like that there are 90 kids in his grade at our public school. Each year, he has a few kids that were in his class the previous year and a few he doesn't know as well. The only private schools that are large enough to have more than one section per grade around here are WAY out of our budget. (15K a year)!!

Another reason was academics. As a teacher, I loved their preschool. It was nurturing, supportive and provided a Christian environment for early learning. As the kids got older, I just didn't see the academic push that I see in our public school.

Another reason was financial. It was not terribly expensive, about 3500 a year times 2 kids. Still, for that amount of money, I felt like it needed to be a superior choice.

Our public school is amazing! I know that we made the right decision for our family and I think that it is a very personal decision.

 

[kacaju]

keeping in mind you said your younger child has special needs. If you do one kid private school and one kid public, you will end up with two different school Holidays.
That in itself can be a huge hassle.

 

[scootch]

I think alot depends on your area. My girls go to a catholic school(the catholic rate is around $2000) Most classes have 11-18 kids. Our public school has 28-35 per class. My brother teaches at a local public school and says that any kids that come from our school(it only goes up to grade 8) is always ahead. He feels that the public schools are made to "teach the test" and the private schools aren't, so he feels they have the advantage to be more diverse in their teaching. One thing I feel differs in a catholic school is the amount of respect the kids show. We recently went to a vacation bible school at a church near us(not catholic) and I could not beleive how wild the kids were. They would not even be quiet for the pastor during prayer. Our lunch worker was there too and she was like, wow, what a difference between catholic and public school students(in that regards). I do feel the parents that are in my dd's classes are very much like us, very into their kids, which we very much love. Good luck with your decisions... you really just have to look at all angles depending on your situation. For us, catholic school has been great and we feel very blessed to be able to send our children there.

 

[JamesMom]

Thanks for all the replies!

My DS4 is in special ed right now but they are anticipating mainstreaming him by Kindergarten. If not, he can be red-shirted a year to give him extra time in special ed. However, given the progress he has made in his speech delay over the past year has eased our fears greatly in that area. The school schedules would accomodate both and I can pull my pre-K out of school if(when) holidays don't match up, but I dont' think it is that big of a deal to send 1 and having Mom & son time with the other.

Our public shcool is in Texas so I guess the public class size is 22 while Catholic is 25. Our school system has 4 schools for their career (K-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-12) and having everyone in 1 building for a time is appealing. Plus in the Catholic school they learn spanish from kindergarten and both spanish and french from 4th. There is music and art programs and some sports starting in 6th. So I believe they won't be deprived anything at Catholic.

My husband and I have expressed concerns over the political agenda's public schools promote and they don't mesh our value systems. That is our main concern for public vs. catholic school. A catholic school should, hopefully, match our family's Catholic values since we attend the same parish.

We looked over our finances and we could swing this years tuition and still have a good emergency fund (3 months) and give it a try. We haven't finally decided, but there are 4 openings in 1st grade as of this morning so I think we can safely take a week or two to make our decision.

 

[mom2grace]

My husband and I have expressed concerns over the political agenda's public schools promote and they don't mesh our value systems. That is our main concern for public vs. catholic school. A catholic school should, hopefully, match our family's Catholic values since we attend the same parish.

Our children go to Catholic school, we are Catholic, and what I quoted is what I am paying for!

For us, my daughter is entering 3rd grade and she is much less "mature" about the world than her best friend from preschool who goes to public school. (Both girls are first born girls, btw, so an older sister is not playing into the equation)

It's not only the school's values, but the values of the other FAMILIES! This is the priceless piece of it for us.

There are many families in our parish who do public schools through 5th grade and then move over.

DD's 3rd grade class will have 20 or 21 students.

I would agree with others that the economy is playing into spots being available for you.

And for your younger son, the public school resources are available for the children who attend our catholic school, and we also have several M.S. degreed resource teachers who teach full-time at our school. So, check into that as well.