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<p>Depends on the state. In California, all you have to be is 18 and able to show “an ability to benefit” - which basically just involves taking placement tests.</p>
<p>This may surprise you, but there are places right here in 21st Century America where the public schools are so abysmal that parents who genuinely care about their kids’ education will make financial sacrifices to give those kids the kind of opportunities that people in wealthy suburban districts take for granted. I am not a wealthy person by any means, but both of my kids are in fee-based high schools, one public residential and one Catholic non-residential. They are there because the small rural underfunded public school system where we live is horrid. To keep them there we do without things like new cars and meals out, we buy our groceries at Aldi, our staples at Dollar General, and our clothes at Goodwill. We live paycheck to paycheck (actually we own a small and struggling business so things are even more tenuous). We made this choice because our kids and their futures are the most important things in our lives. If you want to pass judgment on me, go right ahead; I accord anonymous cracks on the Internet the same respect I do remarks scrawled on public bathroom walls. </p>
<p>I can identify completely with the friend of the OP, even though I know nothing more of the details than you do. </p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using CC App</p>
<p>Do you make it a priority to pay for kid’s private school tuition? My husband had a small business when I lost my job. We made it a priority to pay our kid’s tuition first. If we didn’t think we could afford the tuition at some point, we would have made plans to move our kid’s to public school. If where we lived didn’t have a good public school, I would have gotten a smallest living quarter possible at a good public school area, if my kid’s education was that important to me, but I wouldn’t have made it someone else’s responsibility. As stated by many posters on CC, it’s all about choice you make, and it includes in having kid’s.</p>
<p>I’m not talking about making anything someone else’s responsibility, and based on the limited information about the situation of the OP’s friend, you have no basis to conclude they are either. They reached an agreement with the school. For all you (or I) know, they’re making payments with something pledged as security and paying interest. Or maybe the school agreed to reduce what was owed. You don’t know what happened, but that sure doesn’t stop you from throwing rocks, does it? </p>
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<p>My issue is not at all with someone who has fallen on hard times and is struggling to pay their tuition bill. </p>
<p>My issue is that it seems they did not seek a solution with the school, talk to the school about it, and are therefore caught off guard when the transcript isn’t released. This would not be you Annasdad- no doubt you’d have approached the school long ago to discuss and work out an arrangement (not just seek an agreement when you are forced to do so when you discover they have some leverage with transcripts). You might be right and they have some kind of security other than transcript (hard to imagine), but my hunch is this school will never be repaid.</p>
<p>To be as specific as I am able, the family “thought” it had been resolved back in June, an administrator put a hold status on the transcript.
The head of the school effected a release after the the college informed them they had not received the final transcript.
The school agreed to a payment plan, NOTHING was waived. They did not ask for, or receive, any charity.</p>
<p>What guarantee is there for repayment? Perhaps something very rare today…integrity.
If this boy is any reflection of his parents, I think that may have contributed to the schools decision.</p>
<p>If the parents had a financial hardship, why didn’t the son just go to a public high school instead? The son would probably protest, especially in his last semester, but at least he wouldn’t have this problem now.</p>
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<p>I am a little confused. How could the family have thought the situation was resolved, when they knew that they did not pay the school and still owed the school money? If this was their mindset, basically if there were not an administrative hold with the final transcript not being released, they would have just walked away from the situation.</p>
<p>^Pulling him out and moving him to public school at the last minute doesn’t resolve the issue of being in arrears on the tuition bill and thus not being able to have the transcript released. Even if they did pull him out to go to public school, his new HS would need his transcript, which would require payment of the bill. So you’ve just messed up the kid’s senior year and gotten no gain out of it. </p>
<p>People on here seem incredibly judgemental on this family. I’m not a parent, but if I was and I had my kid in private school (which is a choice for families to make and none of anyone’s business) and I hit hard times financially, I would do everything possible to keep my kids in the school I had selected for them, where they would be receiving the education I wanted for them. The family, as the OP has stated, has been working with the school to figure out a way to deal with this problem and it seems they’ve settled it with integrity and decency. No school wants to punish a family that hits financial difficulty, indeed many private schools, especially parochial schools, bend over backwards to help support families that fall into distress. Still, the school needs the tuition money to pay its bills. So settling it with a payment plan or some other agreement seems fair. At any rate, it’s not anyone’s place here to judge another family’s financial decisions. You can’t know from an internet posting what their real situation is. And even if you did, a little compassion never hurt anyone.</p>
<p>^ Oh please. Many asked various times for more information. The OP wanted our opinion and got it. Understandably the OP was only reporting on a friend so she obviously did not have all the information. She herself made one assumption about the school, most of us made another. </p>
<p>Only now we get a new story that changes the optics. Had we this information at the outset: “To be as specific as I am able, the family “thought” it had been resolved back in June, an administrator put a hold status on the transcript. The head of the school effected a release after the the college informed them they had not received the final transcript” and we probably would have made different assumptions and judgments.</p>
<p>We all make assumptions all the time on here that lead to judgments. If you provide limited information in your OP and ask for an opinion, well people are going to use reasonable judgment by filling in the gaps with assumptions that make the most sense. And- gasp!- those judgments might even be negative! </p>
<p>If one can’t cope with negative judgment, they probably should stay off of internet forums. Good lord, CC would be grossly boring if everyone was afraid of making judgments that might be perceived as negative. Holy smokes.</p>
<p>“This is fine if someone is going to cc as a full pay student. However, one cannot receive federal aid (Pell, stafford loans) unless one has either graduated or passed a GED.” </p>
<p>That is absolutely not true. A student can qualify for those grants and loans by demonstrating “ability to benefit”. In my state, that means scoring reasonably well (slightly below ‘average’) on the community college math and English placement tests. Roughly, the scores needed to qualify for the Pell and Stafford would equate to 9th grade skill levels in math and English. </p>
<p>I am not sure about all states, but in many many states, you do not need a GED or high school diploma to attend community college. If financial aid is not an issue, anyone who can pay the tuition is welcome.</p>
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<p>Especially when those judgments are irresponsible judgments based on inadequate facts by anonymous posters who have an ax to grind.</p>
<p>No, just because someone disagrees with someone, or is reaching a certain conclusion based on information that´s given, it doesn´t mean someone has an ax grind. It is posters who constantly start discussions on “haves and have-nots” has ax to grind, or chip on his shoulder.</p>
<p>^ Irresponsible? What kind of responsibility does one have to posting on an online forum. I’m not even passing judgment on the OP, but some really, hypothetical person who doesn’t even know this thread exists!</p>
<p>Have no ax to grind. Quite the contrary. I’ve never heard of someone in my real world who didn’t pay a tuition bill; I’m about the most liberal person on this board who woudl probably be called a socialist if I moved back to the US (Oldfort can probably attest to that!); and my spouse and I’s family of origin is extremely poor (and we support both sides quite significantly so we see first hand the challenges for so many). </p>
<p>Hmmm Annadad…now who is making assumptions that lead to negative judgments? :)</p>
<p>Might it be pointed out that you said you identify with the family here…ax to grind?</p>