DS is in kindergarten at the same Catholic school where my H attended. I'm a public school teacher, so I put a lot of thought into the decision to go to the Catholic school. While my H & I are both products of Catholic schools from K-college, it wasn't a given that it was where he'd attend.
However, because I'm "in the trenches", I am somewhat disenchanted with public education right now. It's just not headed in a great direction-curriculum, testing, teaching to the test, etc...it's not what school is meant to be. When I visited the kinder class last year, and they told me the kids have multiple recesses, rest time in the afternoon, and free play, I was sold. At our school, it's drill & practice to get ready for the 3rd grade state test. I fully recognize that I'm privileged and lucky to be able to make this choice for my kid.
I chose to live in a good school district so my son could go to public school. Generally public schools have better resources for kids with special needs. First grade was pretty bad but 2-5 has been amazing. My son has grown in amazing really miraculous ways almost. He went from a self contained SPED class to now mainstream except for math. Proud of him and proud of his teachers!
However, because I'm "in the trenches", I am somewhat disenchanted with public education right now. It's just not headed in a great direction-curriculum, testing, teaching to the test, etc...it's not what school is meant to be. When I visited the kinder class last year, and they told me the kids have multiple recesses, rest time in the afternoon, and free play, I was sold. At our school, it's drill & practice to get ready for the 3rd grade state test. I fully recognize that I'm privileged and lucky to be able to make this choice for my kid.
I could've written the same final paragraphs.
My mom & DHs mom were both public school teachers and felt the same way...hence they sent their kids to private. Sad that it's probably gotten worse in the years since.
DS is in kindergarten at the same Catholic school where my H attended. I'm a public school teacher, so I put a lot of thought into the decision to go to the Catholic school. While my H & I are both products of Catholic schools from K-college, it wasn't a given that it was where he'd attend.
However, because I'm "in the trenches", I am somewhat disenchanted with public education right now. It's just not headed in a great direction-curriculum, testing, teaching to the test, etc...it's not what school is meant to be. When I visited the kinder class last year, and they told me the kids have multiple recesses, rest time in the afternoon, and free play, I was sold. At our school, it's drill & practice to get ready for the 3rd grade state test. I fully recognize that I'm privileged and lucky to be able to make this choice for my kid.
This is exactly my concern. My poor mother goes around and around. She taught in both public and private schools and is just dismayed at what's happened to public education. She keeps saying that public schools are great but, but, but and by the end we're both confused. My MIL was a lawyer but her undergrad was in counseling and she worked in Florida public schools after she retired. Convos with her go the same way.
Private Montessori the first 10 years (preschool through 7th grade), now a private prep school where we expect she'll finish high school. We never really considered the public schools, even though we both attended primarily public schools ourselves. The obsession with standardized testing in public education was a deal breaker for us. We have also been very happy with the curricular flexibility of the private schools.
Public. We're in a great district. All the nearby private schools are religious, weird, or really expensive (or all 3). I don't want a religious education for my kids, I don't need people teaching my kids whatever is newfangled and untested, and I don't have the kind of money that makes expensive school easy to manage (and we have far, far too much money to qualify for financial aid).
If something changes that makes us feel like private school is a better option (needs of our kids, decline in school quality, job changes that come with pay increases, etc), we'll evaluate then.
To be perfectly frank, there is certainly an advantage to private school in terms of connections. Academic advantages exist too, of course, but really in my late 30s this is what I see as the enduring legacy of an elite private high school education. Plenty of public school kids are smart, happy, inquisitive, and end up at Ivies and other elite colleges. And to maximize private high school connections you largely have to stay localish to your private high school. Those connections are great for lots of business and career things, but not essential.
That's just too speculative and inchoate and unmeasurable for me to decide to handicap my own retirement savings and current lifestyle and throw myself into private school for my kids right now. I'm open to change in the future.
We moved to NJ - the land of great public schools. I thought I would have preferred Catholic school, but a year of preschool there has changed my mind. So our choice would not change if money was not an issue.
Right now he is in a co-op preschool. When he goes to K he will go to the same public elementary school I went to. We have been redistricted and he will go to the " fancy new " public school for 2nd -5th.
Our school are " okay" they are like 6s and 7s on " Great Schools ". Honestly, we bought in the best school district we could afford, where we could afford the " type" of home we needed.
We cannot afford private school unless we go Catholic in the neighboring city. By the time DS is in High School he will go to a brand new state of the art high school that is being built right now. Between that, free full day K, and lots of arts programs we are staying public for now.
However, because I'm "in the trenches", I am somewhat disenchanted with public education right now. It's just not headed in a great direction-curriculum, testing, teaching to the test, etc...it's not what school is meant to be. When I visited the kinder class last year, and they told me the kids have multiple recesses, rest time in the afternoon, and free play, I was sold. At our school, it's drill & practice to get ready for the 3rd grade state test. I fully recognize that I'm privileged and lucky to be able to make this choice for my kid.
This is what gives me so much pause right now. (Except that I'm not a teacher).
I live in what is considered one of the best public schools in the state. But from the data I find, all that this tells me is that my school district is mostly white, upper middle class and perform well on standardized tests.
My kid will go to the crunchiest, play-based kindergarten I can find. Or, she'll go to the local Catholic school. Because 1) I have real heartburn about paying the FOUR THOUSAND EXTRA DOLLARS my PUBLIC school wants for all day kindergarten, and it doesn't sound like all day K does any more for her than just more of the same "Hitting core concepts more!" And then I saw the "testing schedule" my district has for Kindergarten, and went pale. Five year olds do not need to be data points.
Mine both go to a private (Catholic) school. I am not Catholic, and they are not raised Catholic, but that was the best option for us. My DS went to three different school before we landed at his current school, and I'm glad we've finally found a place where he is challenged academically. Our public school options are rated C or lower, and we kept being wait-listed for the local charter school (which turns out was a blessing in disguise).
ETA: If you want to answer, would your choice be the same if money wasn't a consideration?
Our public schools are pretty good here and our private schools are ... mostly parochial. So it was never really a question of we can't afford private school but rather that they'd get a better more well rounded education at the public school here. That said, we did look into moving to 2 other nationally recognized public school districts, but decided not to because the snob factor in those towns was so high.