WWYD-Private vs. Public School

[amid chaos]

Knowing what i know now...I would send my child to public school, take the $2500 and invest it wisely. For every year my child was in public school I would put away some more money, because if you are considering a private kindergarten, than chances are you will be looking at private school come middle and high school and it's a heck of a lot more than $2500 at that point.

It would make you ill to know what we are spending for a private high school....for two!

 

[All American]

Here's my dilemma. My 4 year old DD currently goes to preschool at a school where my mother works, so she only pays 20% of the tuition. Next year she'll be going to Kindergarten. This school offers a Kindergarten class and with my discount plus supply and registration fee, it will cost about $2500 for the year. Even at the reduced rate, that's still a chunk of change compared to sending her to public school for free. There's nothing wrong with the public schools here, just large class sizes and it's only half a day for 3 hours-which is a quick day to learn something. The private school goes from 8:30-2:30 and I know all the teachers, which makes me more comfortable. Would you pay to send your child to Kindergarten? $2500 is another trip to Disney

We are going to bite the bullet and try to get our daughter in a private school for the same reasons you stated. (ETA: It has an awesome cirriculum--very traditional.) We have to put in the application on Tuesday, and I almost choked when I read the tuition. As much as I would love to go back to Disney, we feel this is the best thing for her right now.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

We have the same situation here and I personally wouldn't send my own DD to the private K. My reasons are 1. she is going to go to public school anyway! 2. she will be turning 6 in October!

Now, if she were a young K, I would consider it most likely, just to give her a little more time. So, when does your DD turn 5? That is a great rate for her to go to school...IF she can handle the long day.

Something else to consider is, if she is going to the public school for 1st and beyond, is this private K going to put her way ahead of the public school kids? Will she go to 1st grade and end up bored!?

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Find out what the schedule is like for each of the schools. If you factor in lunch, nap time, recess etc. the private school day might not have much more learning time in it vs. the public school time if the public school doesn't include those in their 3 hours.

Right! The one here, it is 4 hours for the day, instead of the 3 our public used to be ( it is full day now). I heard people say that, oh they get a longer day at the private school. No, they didn't! That last hour was lunch and recess...something they didn't have during the half day K a couple years ago.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Thanks for everyone's opinions. I know ultimately we need to make our own decision for our family. It's nice to hear what others on the outside would do. I guess one of my biggest hurdles is that DD is my oldest and sending her to public school scares me. I no longer have as much control over her environment. I know I'll have to let her grow up eventually. It's just hard for a mother to do. I'm sure you all understand

Don't be fearful, but involved! Get to know the office staff, her teachers, the other familes! I love our school, the people, the activities, etc. Makes it so much easier!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

There is no "right" answer here. Do what you feel is best for your dd and leave your fear out of it.

I sent my kids to public K when it came time and they did go to preschool.

The public schools here are not "outstanding" however the private schools here are not "outstanding" either. They might be better but not by much.

I will say taking that money and saving for college sounds like a darn good idea. My dd starts college in the fall and we didn't do that.

If I could go back, I would have done that differently.

 

[kissy]

I agree that if your public schools are good then go for it. My kids go to Private school. We get some assistance from the school and some from church and it still costs us over $500/ month not uncluding all the extras they ask us to give. (in the last 2 days I've had to pay $9 for a field trip, buy a class snack, a poster board for a book report and a can of redi whip for a valentines party. Dosen't seem like a lot but it adds up quick. Not to mention uniforms.....The school district we live in is absolutely horrible so I would never put them in there. Plus for myself, I love that my children are getting a catholic eduacation but that is something that is important to me.
On the other hand if we lived in a good public school area I would put them in public school.

 

[Lizbee]

I have been to both, Private in grade school and Public in high school and when my daughter attends school I am going for the Private school. My personal choice and I like it much more in Private than Public.

 

[mommytobug]

I agree that only you can make your decision. It depends on your values, your situation and what public school offers you. I can tell you that in the small town where I live this is a very heated debate and one I usually stay clear of. The public school parents start "courting" you heavy when your child is born. The public school system here is not good. I would NEVER send my child there. The education is not as good, the environment is not safe in my opinion. So, our decision was an easy one. It is not about the status of private school. Most of our parents work really hard to have their children there and very few are wealthy. We work hard to provide the school with extras and the education they offer is outstanding. I have a friend who had a son in public school. They moved to another state and then moved back. He begged her to send him to private because when he got a taste of another public he realized how behind he was. I have nothing against public school, attended public through 8th grade and got a good education. My parents moved and we also were in a situation where private was the only option. So, you do what your heart leads you to do.


I have to share also that my husband and his sister attended private colleges at probably 20000 a year or more. I attended a public college for bachelor's and master's and make as much or more. Private college is something I dont understand. So, if anyone here can enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

 

[princessmorgan]

Thank you all again for the interesting points to consider. They do not take naps at the private Kindergarten. They do eat lunch there though and go outside to play for a half hour. Her preschool teacher now is outstanding. DD will be a young kindergartner, which is another reason I am considering it. She will turn 5 at the end of September just barely making the cutoff. I don't want to hold her back because in her preschool class she has already started to read (sight words and basic sentences) and can write short sentences. I worry that once she hits first grade in public school that she would be bored and a little ahead of the game. The schools here are good, just overpopulated. In our school boundaries there are a lot of ESL children that I feel will need special attention. There are 25 kids per class, and I just don't see how one teacher can give attention to all those students. A couple of friends go to the elementary school and they don't love it or hate it. I would definitely be an involved parent anywhere, but I also have a 2 year old and an infant to take care of.

 

[Christine]

To be honest (I am also from Virginia--not sure if it's the same area), I would go with public Kindergarten if you are going to do public first grade.

Currently, I am big *user* of private schols for my kids. Not because I think our public schools suck so much, but because I have the type of kids who sort of "fall through the cracks." They have different issues and excel more in a controlled environment.

Having said that, both my kids did go to private kindergarten. The reason for this was purely logistics and financial. I work full time, the kids had to do daycare. Before and after care that serviced my kids' public school was as pricey as full-day Kindergarten where they were already attending preschool. So I stuck with that so that weren't having so many changes during the day.

When both of my kids hit 1st grade, I put them in public school. The drawback here was that many of the 1st graders had been through Kindergarten together and a lot of the groups were formed. Fortunately, at that age, those barriers are fairly easily broken, but it was still an adjustment. My kids weren't any further ahead than the kids who were in 1/2 day Kindergarten the year before. The public schools do a good job here, I believe.

So, unless you are going to stay private through elementary school, I'm not sure what you would gain by going private this year except that you don't have to face that "big school" change this fall. You're just putting it off one more year.

 

[allison443]

My three kids all did private school (Catholic school) from kindergarten through high school (Well, one is still elementary but she will go to Catholic high school). Our public schools in our town are not good, imo. I choose not to send my kids there. The Catholic school is very good. I am very diligent in making sure my kids are not behind. The Catholic elementary school offers school sports teams which ps in my town does not. Also, they have a variety of afterschool clubs and activities which ps does not. When I started with my oldest dd, the Catholic school had a very nice aftercare program, ps did not (they have since added one).
As far as high school, my kids were able to take AP classes and classes for college credit that are not offered at the public school. My two oldest dds came out of hs with 15 credits. The Catholic hs is much more college-prep than our public school, based on the percentage of kids even taking the SAT/ACT at the public hs. My dd does a varsity sport at the Catholic hs that is not offered at the public school.
Besides paying tuition, we have also been able to save for college, with the goal of providing our kids with a four year degree with no loans. One is graduating this year Two to go!

Now if I had excellent public schools in my town, we probably wouldn't have gone the private school route. The academic quality of the schools was our top concern.

I hope you look into both options and make your decision! Good luck!

 

[PlutoPony]

There's a learning curve with kids and schools whether it's public or private, and this is true as much for the parent as for the child. Do you think you can afford to send all 3 to private K and/or private elementary? If not, I'd go ahead and send your first to the public schools and frankly she'll be the one you "learn" the ins and outs of your school system with. After you've learned the ins and outs of the school system with your oldest, the road will likely seem much smoother for your younger children. If she goes private and your next one goes public, your 2nd becomes the "trailblazer" for your family - plus you have whatever learning curve you have with the private school and your first child ....

Hope this makes sense. Realize that most kids do JUST FINE in school (parents not as much ) and it just take a while for everyone to learn what's what.....

 

[mickeyboat]

Personally I won't send my children to a government school. I don't want them to learn the same propaganda that I was subjugated to.

Really? From your user name it appears you might be Duke grad. If so, it looks to me like your public school education served you well.

Mine did!

Go Tar Heels!

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

Here's my dilemma. My 4 year old DD currently goes to preschool at a school where my mother works, so she only pays 20% of the tuition. Next year she'll be going to Kindergarten. This school offers a Kindergarten class and with my discount plus supply and registration fee, it will cost about $2500 for the year. Even at the reduced rate, that's still a chunk of change compared to sending her to public school for free. There's nothing wrong with the public schools here, just large class sizes and it's only half a day for 3 hours-which is a quick day to learn something. The private school goes from 8:30-2:30 and I know all the teachers, which makes me more comfortable. Would you pay to send your child to Kindergarten? $2500 is another trip to Disney

I haven't read the entire thread...so forgive me if this has already been said.

OP, we would choose the private school and pay the $2500 if given the option. The private school is actually going to have the children in class long enough to learn something (6hrs). The public school will be 3 hrs and large classes, I promise you, very little learning will actually occur. Take into account these larger classes and add in, inturuptions, lining everyone up, getting the class to quiet down and etc. and there won't be a lot of left over time to actually learn anything. I realize that $2500 is another trip to Disney (I thought that too when I read that amount ) maybe you could change how often you vacation. If you're comfortable with the teachers in the private school, your daughter will be more at ease as well. Just my 2 cents.

 

[java]

Thats wonderful. I remember feeling equally as proud when ours did the same thing in K and 1st.

It wasn't until later when I noticed, and teachers also told me, that they all catch up evenutally (well the majority will, some exceptions won't).

In other words, the *playing field* is leveled evenutally and MOST of that kind of thing won't matter AT ALL when they get to college.
IF they can AFFORD to go to college!

Which only means, while its a wonderful thing now, in the scheme of things with COLLEGE COSTS outta-sight, it pales in comparison to saving for their continuing education.

(flame suit on now LOL)

And sadly, years from now I guarantee you that some WILL remember this thread and especially, posts like mine....
No one thinks it'll happen to them....

No flames here.

I am the mom of 4 and my oldest is in high school. I know the " they all end up there eventually" line too. However I was pleased that an option of going into a 1st grade class was available to us in the public schools. So his interest in school was kept up. I don't think he's a genius- he is just very comfortable with math and I want it to stay that way. Being happy in school and wanting to go is the most important thing about Kindergarten imho.

 

[castleview]

Right! The one here, it is 4 hours for the day, instead of the 3 our public used to be ( it is full day now). I heard people say that, oh they get a longer day at the private school. No, they didn't! That last hour was lunch and recess...something they didn't have during the half day K a couple years ago.

Agreed. Our old school system had both full day and half day kindergarten. The kids all did the same things. One was for day care purposes, nothing more.

 

[Darcy03231]

Doesn't everyone have the option of free public kindergarten? My children have both gone to public and learned plenty. I don't know where you live but in MI the students begin to learn to read in Kindergarten, which I think is learning "much." That being said, I would not pay for private kindergarten unless money was not an issue or my school district was horrendous.

There are some towns/cities in our state that don't offer free public kindergarten. Its just not in their budget. The quality varies from state to state too. DD went to public kindergarten and then was so far behind for first grade she ended up repeating it. Her teacher did a lot of coloring papers and arts & crafts (which DD loved) but not much reading, phonics or math skills. DS went to private kindergarten and it was like night and day. He had reading, math, phonics, computer, etc.. He was definitely more than ready for first grade.

 

[famofsix]

I think you should observe both classrooms and then make a decison where you think your child would be most successful.

 

[gaelic grace]

My best advice is to visit classrooms and then make the best decision based on your families needs and your child's temperment. I am a big advocate of public schools. I work with them and my husband is an administrator but for our oldest child we have chosen private school. We have excellent school systems around us and because my husband works in a different one than we are zoned in I was able to sit four different public school classes as well as two private. I made my decision for several reasons. One, as a Christian I felt good about the reinforcement of my values in the classroom. Two, our public schools start very early in the morning. 8:15 seemed much more humane than 7:10. Third, they still play twice a day, have long art and music classes-our public schools have slowly cut away at recess, art and music. Fourth- 15 children with an aid as opposed to 24. ( Classroom size makes a huge difference in the younger grades), Fifth, size. Our private school had 5 kindergarten classrooms which fed into three first grades classes as opposed to 900 children in just K-2. Sixth- no statewide testing. We live with it everyday in my husbands line of work and I didn't want to hear it from my child as well. None of these reasons alone would have made the decision and some of them aren't related to education at all- time of day and so on. However, as a whole they pointed to the best decision for our family and more importantly for this child. I think that if you visit classrooms in your gut you will get a feeling for where you know your child will be most comfortable. 2500.00 is just a Disney trip if you know that's where your child belongs and what an easy sacrifice to make but it's not about the money at all if your child would thrive and be happier in the other situation.