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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.
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