<p>giterdone–I respectfully disagree based on my experience with the schools in our area. Things may be very different in your area, however, I am, and have been, giving specific examples of schools in our area. Our children attended Catholic elementary schools because we liked the Catholic influence but also because it was a much better school than the public schools in that area. We moved to an area with nationally recognized public schools and opted not to send the kids to Catholic schools because of that. Yes, I missed some of the Catholic influences in school, however, the value system of the public school population as a whole is not any different than the Catholic school–mainly because most of the families that attend our public school are active members of either the Catholic or Lutheran churches in the area. We can still call our “winter break” Christmas Vacation without anyone getting their undies in a wad. :D. Again, I do not see the value in spending $300,000 in K-12 education to have your child get an AA degree for a job that pays slightly above minimum wage when they can go to a public school that is equal to or better than that private school. The private schools here are very much college prep schools, yet their numbers don’t support that compared to the public schools in the area.</p>