Where does/will your child go to school?

[sapphireblue]

He is only 9 months old right now but will be going to public school. Because of money.

If our financial situation changed I would send him to private school--the public schools in our town aren't great and there is a wonderful private one.

[tripleshot]

We live in the same school district DH and I graduated from. The public schools here are really good. Plus the private schools are all religious and we are not.

[WOUNDTIGHT]

DS will go to public schools through 8th grade, and will then (hopefully) attend one of two local all boys Catholic schools. H and I are both big believers in single-sex education in high school.

[thebreakfastclub]

Public. Honestly, the #1 reason is because daycare will bus him to/from. It's a good district though.

[Deleted]

both going to private Catholic school nearby.

[luckyval]

We got wait listed to a few charters, but our base school is one of the best in the county, so we weren't upset going with that option.

Given that we don't make tons of money, we saw no reason to start taking out student loans for grade school. If we could pay out right, we'd certainly consider private school, though there are pros and cons to that.

[circa1978]

I think I'm leaning toward the Catholic option, which I wouldn't have called because I'm agnostic. But it's K-8, and 100 percent of their students this year got into the high school of their choice. And I like the idea of uniforms and structure and disposable income. The prep school he's been admitted to is five times the price.

The public school seems just fine. I think it's in the top 20 in the city but I'm concerned about the increasing push to teach to the test and honestly, for all that effort, their scores aren't even that good.

[gummybear]

Apr 21, 2016 10:40:20 GMT -5 bittybomb said:

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.

Pretty much this. Our public school district is pretty high performing though. However, I see what my neighbors kids go through as far as homework and how much time they spend preparing for and taking standardized tests and I know that we have made the right decision for our family.

I love the community aspect of our school. To us, it's more important than the rankings. 

ETA: Money is not a factor bc it's relatively affordable. I'd prefer single sex private Catholic high school over the archdiocesan high school. Money will be a deciding factor in that decision.

[motzie]

Private, because Florida. Sadly we moved away from one of the best school districts I n NYS. If we move again hopefully the public schools will be better. I would prefer public.

[Mrs. ChanandlerBong]

Public. Our city has good schools. If they weren't and money was t an issue we'd consider private...most likely parochial. we would be the odd family out at one of the non religious private schools nearby.

[jlt19]

Apr 21, 2016 13:37:27 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

I think I'm leaning toward the Catholic option, which I wouldn't have called because I'm agnostic. But it's K-8, and 100 percent of their students this year got into the high school of their choice. And I like the idea of uniforms and structure and disposable income. The prep school he's been admitted to is five times the price.

The public school seems just fine. I think it's in the top 20 in the city but I'm concerned about the increasing push to teach to the test and honestly, for all that effort, their scores aren't even that good.

I swear I'm not a stalker but I thought you mentioned you lived in WC? If you're in RW, one of their HS's just got #5 in the state. And none of the area prep schools did (and I think they were included b/c the #1 school in the state was a prep school from KC).

I do agree about teaching to the test though. Which could be why those schools ranked so high...

[circa1978]

We moved into PW this year jlt19. I graduated from RW schools and, obviously, I'm fantastic, LOL. My concern is mostly with the MAPP testing and the way curriculum seems to be going. My mom just retired from Webster and by the time she left, she had serious misgivings.

[cinco]

Public school. Our schools are good which is nice b/c we couldn't afford private anyway.

[Deleted]

C is in a parochial school for K. The public district we are slated for has a lot of issues. DH bought our townhouse as a bachelor a few years before we met and didn't care about district at that time. We've been trying to sell our house for over 2 years to move into a better district, but our area's market is incredibly dismal, especially for townhouses and our school district. Our area has a grade-school Montessori that has a completely inflexible schedule for dual working parents (no aftercare), and an evangelical Baptist school. While neither DH or I are practicing Catholics, it is the best option for us right now. As far as education goes, it is cheaper than his daycare was and if money were no object down the road we would be happy to keep him there. But we have several excellent local public districts, and just need to have one happy buyer for our home, and we'll be happy to shift the savings into C's college fund instead.

[jlt19]

Apr 21, 2016 14:03:51 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

We moved into PW this year jlt19 . I graduated from RW schools and, obviously, I'm fantastic, LOL. My concern is mostly with the MAPP testing and the way curriculum seems to be going. My mom just retired from Webster and by the time she left, she had serious misgivings.

Both my parents were teachers as well (city), and they felt the exact same way. It's why my mom actually left when she did. I'm also sure she's happy she got out before common core! Though I just read MO is getting rid of it.

[lolo]

Right now our zoned elementary school is a 4/10. I'll need to go visit to get a sense of whether I'm comfortable with J there.

Otherwise, there are two private schools that we'll consider as well as a public charter school.

She'll be 3 next month.

[Marmee]

My kids go to catholic...3 now but all 4 starting in the Fall (P, 2nd, 4th & 6th). I am Catholic and went to Catholic school, DH wasn't raised Catholic (converted after we married) but his parents put him in catholic school too. It was never really up for debate, it's always been the assumption/agreement. It allowed us to live in the inner city and not worry about district. I actually have the neighborhood public school practically in our backyard but I don't know anyone who uses it. The stats last time I saw was that 70% of those zoned for that school choice out or do private school...more kids in my immediate neighborhood go to the nearby catholic school than the public so that's nice that they see each other at home too. I don't think it's all that cheap though (probably because I have 4 kids) & we are paying ~$6K/each just tuition. 90% chance they'll go to independent Catholic HS which is like 3-4xs as expensive. We will see how our finances are in 3yrs because that is a lot especially since we'll have 2 in HS for 4yrs of that (plus college). I try not to think about it. lol

[bittybomb]

Apr 21, 2016 13:45:37 GMT -5 gummybear said:

Apr 21, 2016 10:40:20 GMT -5 bittybomb said:

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.

Pretty much this. Our public school district is pretty high performing though. However, I see what my neighbors kids go through as far as homework and how much time they spend preparing for and taking standardized tests and I know that we have made the right decision for our family.

I love the community aspect of our school. To us, it's more important than the rankings. 

ETA: Money is not a factor bc it's relatively affordable. I'd prefer single sex private Catholic high school over the archdiocesan high school. Money will be a deciding factor in that decision.

I also love that our teachers are not evaluated based upon the standardized test scores of their students, which takes a lot of pressure off of everyone. My kids aren't tested nearly as often as the public school kids.

We have several Catholic high school options near us - some Diocesan, some not. I went to an all girls non Diocesan Catholic high school, and I'd love it if my daughter wants to go there too.  Seeing as she's only in Kindergarten, we have plenty of time.  Lol.

[CloudBee]

Private parochial through K (or 2nd grade if they expand) until we move into a neighboring district. If we don't move (unlikely) he'll stay private, and likely remain in a parochial setting.

There's also a chance we'll home school for 1-2 yrs during elementary so we can do some extended foreign travel as a family.

[sandyapples]

My Girls go/will go to our neighbourhood public school. Private school never crossed my mind. We moved to this town for many reasons, good schools was one of them.

[pitta12]

My kids go/will go to public school, which is an easy decision since we are in a great school district. It of course depends entirely on the specifics of the schools and kids in question, but in a general sense I prefer public because (1) diversity, (2) going to school with kids who mostly live nearby (which I recognize to some degree contradicts point #1), and (3) community involvement/support.

I went to public school through 8th grade and then private Catholic high school, so I dabbled in both. I hated my high school, but I guess it taught me a lot about privilege and general assholery, which counts for something I suppose. But my circumstances were very different and the public high school wasn't really an option at the time for academic reasons. I would have had to take extra classes at community college to get the credits I needed for college admissions.

[penguingrrl]

My kids are in public school. There was never a discussion about it. H and I were both public school educated and never really discussed not using public schools. We're fortunate to be able to afford a really good public district.

If money weren't a concern there's a small chance we would go for a very prestigious non religious private school.

[CajunShrimp]

DS1 is in a private preschool, and will be at an independent Catholic school next year. DS2 will follow in his footsteps. We are doing private because even though we live in a section of Boston with the best public schools, and there is one that is a 5 minute walk away, they placed him in a turnaround (i.e. failing) school in a bad neighborhood 2.5 miles away. Because Boston public school sucks.

[onomatopoeia]

Public. We looked into private when DS1 was struggling in K and grade 1, but we have a great school system and we didn't think we'd get anything more out of the private schools in our area (the ones that we could afford, anyway). While school can still be tough for him, they are really invested in him and I really think he's where he needs to be. My younger son is receiving an excellent education at the same school in the spanish immersion program. We are very lucky tat the decision was fairly easy for us.

We'd consider an all-boy's school but we don't live close enough to one to make it feasible.

[irishbride2]

Private non religious.

Our public schools are horrible.

I teach there and I'm an alum so it was an easy choice.

[4speedy]

I have one child in private school and one in public. I sent my older child to private school because our public school couldn'the meet her needs. Then my second child came along and the fancy private school couldn'the meet his needs, so he goes to public.

[peachykate]

We moved to where I grew up for the school system and then they decided to implement full day kindergarten and redistricted for next year. I'm not at all comfortable with their new plans for the kids they can't fit into the actual kindergarten school so now Jax is going to Catholic school starting next year. I doubt we will switch back once he's in but who knows.

[piper]

We bought in our neighborhood specifically for the schools. The high school was just named one of the top in the country.

He went to private preschool the moved to public in kindergarten

[keyslover]

Apr 21, 2016 16:34:25 GMT -5 4speedy said:

I have one child in private school and one in public. I sent my older child to private school because our public school couldn'the meet her needs. Then my second child came along and the fancy private school couldn'the meet his needs, so he goes to public.

I never understood this, until I had kids. Now, I get it.

[fryjack2]

They currently go to private preschool. They will start at a new private school (pre-k-8th) in September.


I won't send them to Boston public schools and we don't want to move to the suburbs.

We can afford to send them to private, so we will until we can't or it isn't a good fit for our kids.