Most likely public school, but this decision is still three years away.
H and I are both products of public schools, and both of his parents worked their entire careers in public schools. I realize we are fortunate to live an a neighborhood where we feel confident in the safety and quality of our schools.
My kids go to Catholic school. I'm Catholic, and am the product of Catholic schools myself. Catholic school education is excellent. Our Catholic school outperforms our district public school on every level. I also love that their education is faith and service-based, and our school is small, which leads to a really tightknit community.
I am an agnostic but I teach at an independent Catholic school (no parish, all lay people). I've been here for over a decade and my kids will go here as well. It's the best choice for us for many reasons. My H works at a private 6-12, too, so our boys can choose to leave here in 6th grade and go to his school, or they can graduate 8th grade here and choose his school or the public high school. Over my dead body will they go to our public middle schools.
ETA: We are both products of public schools. We were just discussing the other day what an impact our careers-- and these jobs, in particular-- will have on our boys. We could never afford tuition at either one of our schools ($20-$30k, depending on the grade). Our public elementary and high schools are good options (though there's a huge heroin problem right now in our high schools), but the middle school options are terrible.
Post by NinaSimone on Apr 21, 2016 10:43:18 GMT -5
DD is in a religious, private school for now. We're hoping that she'll be accepted into a top-rated public school that starts in 5th grade. DS will follow the same path once he's old enough. Putting them in private school wasn't really a choice, the public schools here are pretty bad. We aren't Catholic so went with a Christian school instead.
Post by MixedBerryJam on Apr 21, 2016 10:44:03 GMT -5
My kids go/went to private Catholic prep schools. Older son went to what I consider the best high school in our metro area; I wanted younger son to go there too. He applied and got in but he wanted to go to any school other than where his older brother went, so I'm not as enthusiastic about his school. ETA: we are very very very lapsed Catholics and it has never been an issue.
What happened at the charter? My daughters will be attending one next year.
How much time do you have?Â
All charters are different! Our kinder year we were very happy. But the second year was a nightmare. It was not run well.Â
My daughter went for kinder and it closed so we are at a public. Now they are opening a new one. I know most of the people involved so I'm hoping to have another great year. Our public school isn't bad just looking for something different.
Post by hopecounts on Apr 21, 2016 10:50:26 GMT -5
I answered for elementary (currently she is in a private ASD program), she will go public. I don't like our school system and how academic Kindy is so if she wasn't SN we would have seriously considered the local private school which has a more traditional type of kindy program (lots of play/recess, academics in small segments broken up with play/specials/recess)
We moved from the #115 district to #2 when I got pregnant so they could go to public (we also needed to move so the kids could have a place to sleep). The private tuition where we were was insane. I love our elementary so far (1st year).
I'm not sure yet. We live in an awful school district so we are considering the other options. There are several magnet schools, but admittance is not guaranteed, or private schools. Nearly all of the private schools are religious and we are atheist, so we will have to weigh the pros and cons.
I originally wanted them to attend French immersion, which is still public, just harder to get in to, but we have an elementary school less than a minute's walk from our house, and I couldn't resist the convenience.
Post by UMaineTeach on Apr 21, 2016 10:52:57 GMT -5
Our imaginary kids would go to public school. We don't really see ourselves as having a choice. Both geographically and funding.
Well, they would go to private HS. But on the public dime, as the town partners with the private high school in town rather than run its own. But I've heard that school is not the best education you can get for the money, many in town support getting our own HS. But the area isn't big enough to support 2 high schools.
Post by CrazyLucky on Apr 21, 2016 10:53:29 GMT -5
Where I live, the public school, at least in elementary, is pretty good. The only private schools here are Baptist schools. We are Christian but have some significant disagreements with the Baptists, and I don't really want my kids, at a young age anyway, going to a Baptist school.
Post by textbookcase on Apr 21, 2016 10:55:15 GMT -5
The older two go to different homeschool charter schools. They are home most of the time but attend weekly workshops at school. K is in 4th grade and attends workshops all day on weds. Plus special things like parties, field trips, science fairs etc. C is in 6th grade and her school partners with the local public school's gifted and talented program for workshops each week. Each month they have a different focus area for workshops, right now they are doing art history which will culminate in an art show. They've done local history, science workshops, and they did a play w the Missoula Children's theater. Bonnie is in preschool twice a week but does preschool at home, too. Next year she will go 3 days per week.
My girls go to public school. We moved here the summer DD #1 was between K and 1st grade, specifically for the quality of the school system (we didn't do it earlier and kept her at her private preschool for K b/c, due to her age and our state cutoff, she couldn't have attended public school that year anyway). We figured why budget for two private school tuitions when an excellent public education is available?
We made the choice because we have no other choice. If we want him to have accommodations provided via his IEP, we have to do public school. Private schools aren't obligated to provide them.
Post by usuallylurking on Apr 21, 2016 10:56:43 GMT -5
Public school, we bought our home knowing which school district we wanted our boys in. I grew up here, know several people in the area, as well as several people in the education system- I'm not afraid of the school district suddenly being bad. The private schools here don't offer much different than what our kids will get, but if we lived elsewhere with different private options I might choose differently.
If we could afford it, I would send DS2 (and eventually DS3 and baby #4) to Montessori for preschool. But it is about 3x more expensive than where DS2 currently is, and we are happy with his current school and teachers.
Our oldest is in a public school and out younger kid will be there in the fall.
We moved here for the schools and while I think private/parochial offers smaller classes and certain other perks I knew we'd try the public schools first. So far I've been pretty happy. The class sizes ARE big, but my daughter has done well and I think the school at large is a strong. I do sometimes worry about middle school which are weak across the board in our area but for now I'm leaning towards public for k-12 so we can hopefully offer more support during college.
FWIW the financial picture looks like this: Camp for 2 kids for 9 week - ~9000. FWIW the cheapest camp I've seen is is ~400 a week per kid around here because we're in a VHCOL area. $9000 is a tier up and we book early for early bird rates. After school for 2 kids ~1100 per month Coverage for school closures ~1000 per year Misc. school costs (supplies, field trips, teacher gifts etc) $400 per year. Supplies are a big one -- that is $200 alone. Donations to school (optional of course) ~$200 to $300 over the year
The lowest cost private school I know of is 10,000 and most are closer to 20,000 to 30,000 PLUS fundraising during the year. It is a lot of extra money on top of the money we pay for the time my kids aren't in school. We'd pay it if felt we had to but for now I think my kid is getting a reasonably good education.