private high school

[pavulon]

I never attended a private high school and there isn't one in the town where I now live. I did attend a pretty good "state" university and a couple of good "private" universities for FAR less/yr than the h.s. tuition recently quoted in another thread. But that was in the 1990's and I would have attended only state universities if they offered the same programs...which many now do. Perhaps these are the reasons that I found the tuition quoted by some in another thread astonishing.

Yet, I'm sufficiently curious to ask if the primary benefits of attending private high school are found in avoiding potential public school problems or are their offerings that far beyond those of public schools in a given area or both or ?? ?

Also, for those that are footing the bill, what % of your current bill would be too much to justify it?

[masraum]

We moved to the Pensacola are just before I went into the 5th grade ('81) and stayed there until I was half way through the 8th grade. The public schools were really bad.

My parents sent me to a private school that serviced everything from kindergarden through college. My grandparents help to pay the $800+/month cost to go to the school. Yes, it was over $800 per month to go to that school in the early 80s. I believe it was well worth it. After that, we moved again and I went to good public schools. The high school that I went to had a huge list of AP level classes and generally had multiple scores of 1600 on the SATs every time it was given.

[krystar]

my parents sent me to private middle and high school.

for one, if you live in a city like chicago, a private school won't have as much problems with gangbangers in private schools. there'll still be trouble makers and issues like drugs and whatnot.

in regards for college entrance, a B student at a private school might be compared to an A student at a public school. of course depending on the college and the high schools.

AP programs are definitely one BIG step above public schools. that'll translate to progressing to higher classes in college.

[Nostril Cheese]

Hey man, public schools aint all bad. I learned how to fight in public school. LAUSD, baby.

[Rick Lee]

I think my prep school was around $13k a year when I graduated in 1989. It's well north of $30k a year now. But it was worth every penny. That's where I really learned critical thinking, how to read and write and, not necessarily do math, but how to figure things out deductively. I got through the AP calculus course my senior year, so I didn't have to sit in an auditorium and do it in college. Our max class size was 17, but I usually had around 10 at most. Every teacher knows every kid's name. As it's a boarding school, the teachers are avail. 24/7 and have "house duty" in the dorms every night, sort of like college professors' office hours, but no appt. necessary. I finished college in 3.5 yrs. and with my junior year abroad, which I totally credit my prep school with making possible. Where I am now, I could have easily skipped college and gotten here. But I fear where I'd be, had I gone to public high school, which was still a pretty good one in my home town.

[jyl]

Depends on the school.

My daughter goes to a public HS. As measured by SAT scores, it is the best in the area, better than all the private schools. Dozens of IB classes. Course catalog looks like a college's. The one disadvantage compared to the private HS that some of her friends go to is that the public school is 5x larger, so the kids have to be more self-directed and more assertive to get the most out of the experience.

[black73]

Private schools have their own set of problems. I think it is better for children to associate with people from all walks of life, rather than be isolated to just the "chosen few" that go to private school.
As far as achievement, that is up to the individual and the parents, no matter what the setting.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by black73

Private schools have their own set of problems. I think it is better for children to associate with people from all walks of life, rather than be isolated to just the "chosen few" that go to private school.
As far as achievement, that is up to the individual and the parents, no matter what the setting.

From what I know of the people I went to private middle school with and public highschool with, the real difference without parent interaction and caring is the make/model/year of the car they were screwing in, the quality of the pot they were smoking, and whether they could afford to do coke.

[Rick Lee]

At my private school we had plenty of foreign students and also plenty of poor kids who won scholarships to go there. My dad went there on full scholarship too. They used to send him a canceled tuition bill each semester as a souvenir. And there were also plenty of rich kids, some of whom you've heard of in the news over the years. in fact, the current WH press sec. was a few years ahead of me there. It was a pretty diverse student body when it was still all boys. When it went co-ed around 1987, they only accepted a pretty elite class of girls in the beginning. But it evened out over a few years and is totally even now. Since my mom and grandmother both worked there and I had plenty of teachers my dad either also had or had graduated with 25 yrs. earlier, rest assured, my folks had pretty good tabs on me. I got special treatment in some ways and it wasn't always the good kind.

[Cannonball996]

I went to both, public and private, compared; the public school was "dumbed down' in my opinion. private school was much more competitive.

[red-beard]

My parents picked the best schools when they moved. Our Public Highschool offered about a dozen AP/College Credit courses. They had 2 different Calcs, English, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Economics, European history and American History. I don't remember language ones, but I think thye existed. Both my sister and I tested out of about 1 year of college. My drafting class (in place of an ART requirement) got me out of a year of drafting in College.

I do think I might have done better in a private school where I could have run at my own pace.

[Tobra]

That is a hard question to answer. It depends on the kid as much as the school, a lot of the time. How good the public schools are, how good the private ones are, lot of stuff.

[aigel]

Not to PARF this up, but one reason many people send their kids to private schools is that they want the kid in a religious school matching the family's faith. That's definitely something you can't get in public schools.

Aside from that IMHO you either pay more rent or mortgage to get into a good public school district or you pay for private school. My approach is always to get into a nice neighborhood, as you also deal with less crime, nicer neighbors and more stable home values.

G

[p911dad]

As they say, it's complicated. Many children in the area we are in (Charlotte) attend private school, and in some neighborhoods you don't see many public school buses. You just don't hear parents talking about public school quality, and virtually all the parents we know within the city limits with school age kids send them to one of the many types of private, religious or magnet schools in the area. The main issues seem to be quality of education and chance of getting into a good college and also the safety of their children. The public schools have a street reputation for having a lot of distractions in class and discipline problems. Yes there are great schools in the city but you can't get a guarantee your kid will go to one of them. That is a big problem and if a reasonable choice is available parents will take it. This is a problem for the city district because that choice siphons off that pool of better students and leaves the city with a large number of poor kids (paper last week said over 53% of the students live in households earning below the poverty line).
We happen to live just inside the city boundries and have seen a number of families head north to the suburban public districts (which are highly rated) when their kids are in elementary school in order to avoid paying the private school tuition. One family we know in the city send their two kids to Montessori and the last I knew their bill was around $18,000 for the two. I gather that is around average.
As far as pecentage of income going to tuition, in this state the use of tuition vouchers is being expanded and that will allow more parents to have a choice where their kids go to school. It seems that if the private tuition is too high people move to a better public district if they can swing it, and the folks with enough income will pick a school they can afford and their child can get into in order to stay inside the city for easier commuting and all the amenities Charlotte offers its residents. I suspect this is true for other places as well.

[URY914]

The kids come from parents that are willing to pay to give their kids the best education. Also the teachers and the staff work for you. You can always get them to email you or call you. You are paying their salaries directly and they understand it.

My daughter will be graduating from a private school next year. My wife and I did not attend private school.

[G50]

As said above, it depends on where you live.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of very, very high level public high schools in the country.

Best High Schools in the US | Top US High Schools | US News & World Report

Of course, there are thousands and thousands of really bad public schools, too.

I live in an area where the public high schools are very high level. Some kids go to private (many for religious reasons), but the majority, including those from very high income families ($2+ million house neighborhoods) go to the public high schools.

Some actually send their kids to private for *lower* academic standards, b/c the public school they'd have to go to (based on where they live) is so cut throat competitive. The theory being it's better to get a 3.8 at an easier private school than a 3.2 at the hyper competitive public school.

[pavulon]

wow...my town's HS is actually on this list!

Top Wisconsin High Schools | Best High Schools | US News

[syncroid]

My daughter goes to a private school currently. She is in 8th grade now. We pay through the nose for this! Our plan from day one for her was to go to private school through 8th grade and then go to public school. She is a 4.0+ grade average now, and an athlete to boot. Our thought process in this decision was to feed back into our own local community and make it better. She knows that she will part ways with a lot of her friends and make new ones at the same time.
Just my buck .92 of thought.