[pjb1967]

Does anyone have any experiences or knowledge they would like to share concerning public vs. private education.

My daughter is about to be 3 so I still have some time before I have to put any deep thought into this. We live in a average, middle class suburb, outside of Buffalo. Our local public school is fine, there are better ones in different suburbs but I would say ours is your average suburban school district.

I recently received an invitation to an open house at a nearby private school. It's has no religious affiliation, just private.

Well... It was amazing! It starts in pre-K through 8th grade. Very "state of the art" and wonderful stats. on educational performance, teacher/student ratio, ect .

My concern is, of course, the money. It cost a little bit more then what I have been paying for full-time daycare the last 3 years. Paying for daycare these years has been hard, I am not going in debt or digging a hole each month but there is not much disposable income after the bills and daycare are paid for and quite honestly I have been looking forward to this monthly expense ending soon.

I would love to send my daughter to this school but I am not sure I'm comfortable with the financial sacrifice. We would probably qualify for some aide but the savings would be used up by having to find daycare during the school breaks and summer. I am also concerned about our family and my daughter "fitting in" for 8 years with mostly very wealthy families. 75% of students pay full tuition.

If anyone has any thoughts on private vs. public schools I would love to hear them. Or if there any any teachers out there that have worked at both, your experiences would be great to hear too.

Thanks,
Pam

[Blessed2x.]

Have you toured your local public school? That might give you a solid comparison. Good luck.

[beverlyanderic]

there's no easy answer. some people say you can't put a pricetag on a solid education; however, would your child not be getting a solid education at the public school? i grew up in public schools and my wife in private- both have their benefits, but I don't think one is clearly better than the other- unless the public schools in your area are gang-ridden or absolutely horrible, but doesn't sound like yours are.

as blessed said, check out the public school more in depth and then see if the private school is worth $XX more.

good luck!

[khaki17]

I am facing the same question for my daughter for kinder next year. I have toured both the public school and the private school. Right now, I will be pursuing both--I have applied to the private school for her and will soon fill out the financial aide forms. But, I won't know this before I need to register her for the public school--so I will register her there to see if I can get her into a full day class. That means I won't have to make a final decision until about March.

There have been a lot of factors influencing my decision. One is that I have worked in public education for many, many years and strongly support what we have to offer students through public ed. That said, my local school is not at all diverse. We would be the ethnic and economic diversity. The private school is much more diverse--they actively seek out families with ethnic, religious (and to some extent financial) differences. If we get substantial scholarships, she will likely go there. If we don't get substantial scholarships, probably not.

I have looked at class size, specials offered (art, music, PE, technology, Spanish, etc.), how classes are formed. I know we will face issues related to the fact that most of the families will be far wealthier than we are. But, I am comfortable dealing with that (and would have the same issues in our public school). I like that the private school has a mission related to social justice and does character / moral education along with the typical curriculum.

It is a tough decision. I look forward to hearing what others say. I guess my point is to apply, see about scholarships and go from there....

[shoegirl06]

Pam - I feel where you're coming from. We're sending Lib to a private school (religiously affiliated, although we don't practice in that faith), but you know where we live and public school isn't an option for us.

That being said, I know first hand that you have a nice school district where you live (KT I think?). I would have taught there if they had called ONE DAY SOONER, but that's another story altogether!

Anyway, take a tour of which school A would go to and see what you think. Does your district offer Universal PreK? If you decide to send her public, why not save the $$ for a kick-butt summer camp for her to attend?