<h1>280 and #278 - The donation to redo the Metropolitan Museum landscaping is $100 million dollars, BY ONE PERSON.</h1>
<p>I am sure if your friends were donating that kind of money towards the severely indigent, they wouldn’t be. </p>
<p>What are the dollar amounts of the donations you are referencing?</p>
<p>God bless you, zmom and redpoint, for showing many illuminating the dimensions of this difficult and serious issue. You have made a lot of things better understood based on your direct in-depth experiences and multiple perspectives
Zmom, your D, and redpoint, your BF are AMAZING!!! Thank God for people like them.</p>
<p>Stop with the class warfare! At least these rich people are not KEEPING all their filthy lucre for themselves, although spending DOES motor up the economy and support employment.</p>
<p>God forbid that someone is successful and creates wealth. Horrors.</p>
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I don’t have any friends who donate that kind of money. You obviously have me confused with the mayor. I’m an uneducated, white trash woman with an illiterate husband who tries to do the best I can. My daughters and I each adopt a child at the beginning of each school year, through a community group, and ensure that those children have what they need to succeed in school, such as supplies and a winter coat, along with a few luxuries. We have also spent thousands of hours (maybe tens of thousands) of hours teaching adult non-English speakers to read. Because I believe that there is no more important or valuable gift than the gift of literacy (see the comment about my husband, above) and I am much too busy living my beliefs to envy what anyone else has or to worry about how they spend their money. So we do our part and it’s more than money. What about you? As you sit there snarking and judging, what do you do to further your values and judgments? As far as the landscaping at the Met, I’m pretty darn grateful that the entire facility exists for all of us to enjoy, regardless of income, and learn from. But, you know, I’m selfish because my daughter aspires to becoming a conservator of medieval weaponry, so you will imagine that her life dream leads to the Met.</p>
<p>Parent: "#280 and #278 - The donation to redo the Metropolitan Museum landscaping is $100 million dollars, BY ONE PERSON.</p>
<p>I am sure if your friends were donating that kind of money towards the severely indigent, they wouldn’t be. "</p>
<p>Once again, this is an example of muddying the conversation. I don’t think the typical upper middle class parent who can afford a private NYC school has this kind of money to donate. You are skewing the conversation. You sound like a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>Zmom, you sure do have your head on your shoulders and your feet on the ground. You know what matters. Thanks for all you do for others, and for your sensible spirit. We are lucky to have you on this board.
redpoint, great points, showing the subtleties of the “haves” and how they support others- appreciate your taking the time to share.</p>
<p>NYC does take us apart but can put us together, too!</p>
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Thank you. That means a lot to me. I never forget for a minute how blessed we are to have the good health to work hard every day and do our best. I have healthy children. What more could I possibly need?</p>
<p>Thanks for the support, performersmom!</p>
<p>“So how to bridge the gap? Any ideas?”</p>
<p>Suggesting where to get the money (answering a direct question) had nothing to do with class warfare, muddying the waters, what anyone pays for private school, or being a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>I’m sorry if you didn’t like the answer, but it is a fact, plain and simple.</p>
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It’s nonsense, plain and simple. Also envy and spite.</p>
<p>As was made clear above, the problem is not a lack of money. But that may be too complicated for a mindset that’s all about coveting what others have.</p>
<p>Finding a donor with $100 million isn’t a real answer. It sounded like you were suggesting that “our friends” (parents with kids in private school, by implication) had that kind of money, but were instead using it frivolously (gardens at the Met? frivolous or not—kind of a major landmark— besides the point). Of course our “friends” don’t have access to this kind of money, so it is muddying the argument. It’s a straw man. It takes us away from the central issue.</p>
<p>I usually just lurk, but wow. Thank you redpoint, zmom, et al. You did an amazing job explaining the inexplicable monster that is the NY public school system.</p>
<p>Also off topic, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a “suggested” admission donation. That’s right-suggested. In all it’s glory this landmark is open to all regardless of ability to pay. Thanks to donors:)</p>
<p>In response to posters who think that it is insane that people spend this kind of money on pre school just think about what they spend everywhere else. I really appreciate the wealthy people in NYC and the boarder areas. If it were not for them a business like mine would never make it. </p>
<p>I would also like to add that some of the most generous people both with their time and money are the Wallstreet bankers who earn the very high salaries/bonus.</p>
<p>Interesting article in the Times today:</p>
<p><a href=“Affluent Foreign-Born Parents in N.Y. Prefer Public Schools - The New York Times”>Affluent Foreign-Born Parents in N.Y. Prefer Public Schools - The New York Times;
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<p>The thinking of these parents cited in the article could be my mother speaking, word for word, in the 70’s: </p>
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<p>There are roughly 15,500 households in the city with school-age children where the total income is at least $150,000 and both parents were born abroad. Of those, about 10,500, or 68 percent, use only the public schools, the data show.</p>
<p>Of course, affluent foreign-born New Yorkers tend to live in relatively well-to-do neighborhoods, which often have better public schools.</p>
<p>He and his wife, who have two young children, chose Cobble Hill, a relatively affluent Brooklyn neighborhood, in part because it had a highly regarded public elementary school, he said. “There are areas where we would never send them to public school,” Mr. Degnemark said.</p>
<p>So the above are also some of the quotes from the article. Lets take them one by one, shall we:</p>
<ol>
<li> Affluent families earning 150k. Sorry that is not even close to affluent in NYC. Make it ten times that and you can afford to send two kids to private school.</li>
<li> Live in better neighborhood that tend to have better schools. Hope their second kid doesnt get left out.</li>
<li> Self explanatory. And what redpoint has been trying to describe in 20 pages of this thread.</li>
</ol>
<p>Also please note the article mentions only parents with elementary school aged children. Nothing about Middle and HS. </p>
<p>And also please realize that private schools are reluctant to accept foreign nationals precisely due to their — “We’re always back and forth, but our kids will probably be in many more nations, so it’s important for them to be able to deal with multicultural exposure,” she said. — Going back and forth disrupts the class. Also a private school hopes the kid will stay from K through 9 or 12. They dont want to make a cohesive class, then have some kids leave b/c their parents were sent back to the home country to work. It upsets budgets, kids, etc. So they tend not to accept those families, which skews the numbers.</p>
<p>Everything is a matter of choice. College could be free or could be very expensive or in a middle of price range. The same goes for everything. Thinking one way or another makes sense only if it leads to correct choice for specific family. If not, then it is waste of time.</p>
<p>…" Affluent families earning 150k. "</p>
<p>-Not affluent at all, not even in cheapest places, forget NYC. Not even if mortgage is paid and no loans and only one dependent. 150k with mortgage, car loans, several kids is barely making it. Maybe it was affluent few decades ago, not any more.
Keep in mind that 150k pays ton of taxes and locked out of any government assistance. 150k might be equal to much lower income in terms of opportunities that family actualy has.</p>
<p>The New York Times loves to write silly articles like this that rile people up. It is full of holes></p>
<p>We were in NYC for a function on Sunday and were talking with a friend who lives in Manhattan. His wife is a realtor. They have two children in the city, one attended one of the specialized HS (that involved an extensive commute) and they just enrolled their son ( middle school age) in private school this year. He was trying to talk us into moving into the city, but when we reminded him that our son is a HS freshman, his response was “Oh…maybe you can buy now, rent it out until he graduates”. The options are just too unknown and out of our control!</p>