<p>My kids’ OH public school has all of those things too. I think the difference here is that most families are middle to upper middle class and our schools are well funded by property tax levies we vote on and always pass. We have high taxes in our district, but most parents have no problem affording them. Things like test fees, test prep courses, summer abroad programs and club sports are affordable to the vast majority of families.</p>
<p>We also have a brigade of stay at home moms who can and do volunteer, and an annual PTO auction that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for “extras”.</p>
<p>None of this is the case in our area’s poorer districts and I imagine it is not the case with NYC public schools either, which have been mostly abandoned by those who can afford to send their kids to privates.</p>
<p>It’s worth mentioning that our state’s system of funding education has been found unconstitutional, but the legislature is in no hurry to fix it.</p>
<p>First,re Hollingworth preschool–the one the twin with a mom who went to Barnard didn’t get into. It currently runs about half the cost of most of the private schools because it’s a lab school for gifted kids affiliated with Columbia Teacher’s College. The teachers are grad students in that program who don’t have to pay tuition while working there; they also get a salary. It’s a great place and it stresses diversity. Anyone who thinks giving $ to Barnard should give them preference is just plain mistaken. </p>
<p>My offspring went to good public programs in NYC all the way K-12. I think that on the whole the options are better for high school than elementary school. Our local public school FINALLY has a gifted program which is recently established and which was almost closed because the Dept of Ed subdivisions played games. It took interference by our elected officials to save it. </p>
<p>One problem is that young families are FLOODING into the city, but many are moving to neighborhoods with few or no schools. If you don’t get in, you may have to take your child a considerable distance and in some cases, (s)he may have to travel through some not so great neighborhoods. </p>
<p>My earlier post was in response to Mncollegemom asking what the differences were between my friend’s private school and our public school.</p>
<p>We have ONE school to choose from in our town. ONE school district. There are only 2 schools in our county - the other in the next town. We are also middle/upper class. </p>
<p>Just because my kids go to a small school absolutely doesn’t mean I don’t care about their education ! </p>
<p>We personally see to it that they have opportunities, so my kids aren’t deprived. I do say that their school does not offer the best education. Living in small rural areas vs. living in a city does have it’s trade offs, I’m aware of that. </p>
<p>Nice that some of your public schools do offer good solid curriculums and educational experiences. Not all are like that. You are very fortunate.</p>
<p>WOW, is that really necessary Gourmetmom? There are plenty of places around the country that have ample opportunities in the public schools. Since our kids don’t go there I can’t speak specifically on them, but Ohiobassmom has the same opportunities at their schools. The top colleges are not reserved for prep school kids…</p>
<p>That’s true. But to my mind (true or false) what we were discussing was not whether kids from private schools do better than public for college admissions. We were discussing why people might pay $$$ to attend (NYC) private schools, or if that is always insane.</p>
<p>One of the reasons that people pay $$$ for private schools is because they believe those schools do a better job at college admissions. Believing that private schools are better equipped to get students into the kinds of colleges you want your kid to attend is, for many people, a key factor in favor of sending their kids to private school. It’s hard to separate the two discussions.</p>
<p>^ no, but certainly where you went to HS counts and in a certain group of NYC private schools, you pretty much have to go to nursery school there to be admitted into the HS.</p>
<p>Many parents think of nursery school in terms of education/environment to give their child the best possible “development” that they can afford, and from a more instrumental perspective, as entry into the right feeder school to the ‘right highschools’ which is perceived to help with the ‘right’ universities.</p>
<p>I know a family that just sent their kids to the local not-great public elementary school in NYC in the 90s. We were shocked they would take such risks. But when the kids hit the teen years, they moved to burbs with good highschools. Both kids got into ‘top 5’ universities. I admire their courage and assumptions that their kids would learn to read and all the other basics anywhere. So many of our parental decisions are borne of anxiety and folks will pay a lot to reduce it.</p>
<p>^^It’s not that simple. If you are a family that has two parents, one stay at home, you may have an easier time sending your kids to a not-so great local elementary, since the stay at home parent can supplement the many things not available to the kid - sports, art, music. If you are a single working family or two parent working family, not so much. If you are at home parent and your second kid didnt get into the same school as the older sibling due to lack of space, you will need to juggle schedules. If you are two parent in office family or single parent, you’re frankly screwed. This is the situation in NYC publics. When it works, as someone said, it works well. If it doesn’t, it fails in an epic manner.</p>
<p>My sister went to my rural, way upstate NY public school, where we were offered no AP, honors classes or many electives. She is now a happy Cornell Vet school grad. No preschool at all. I went to Syracuse, but that was more based on athletics then academics.</p>
<p>mncollegemom, as someone who left Manhattan because I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford the schools (and I was unwilling to go through the stress of getting my son into the right public), I totally understand why you are flabbergasted by the prices. What you have to understand, however, is that people make choices, and for many, living in Manhattan is an immeasurable benefit. The only reason we left was cost and we’d move back in a heartbeat if it were feasible. Our children love the city and just about our biggest college challenge now is convincing our eldest to think about schools outside of Manhattan. For those who can afford it and who love it (or whose careers demand it), there is no other option.</p>
<p>Ohio— that article is exactly what I’m talking about. It IS that bad. And when your child goes to middle school and high school you have to do it all over again. People scorn the prices of NYC private schools, as they should, but the situation is incredibly difficult for everyone.</p>
<p>We moved out of NY to save money, but we ended up paying for private school, multiple cars with insurance, house/yard maintenance, commuting costs to NY, higher utility bills (bigger house), needed a live in sitter (had a live out in NY)…We should have stayed in the city. We are moving back now our kids are grown.</p>
<p>Perhaps this has been mentioned, but there is also the huge networking component of these private schools. Just before we moved, my son’s daycare classmate got accepted to Dalton with a big scholarship. The little boy’s father was one of the astrophysicists who designed the Rose Center at the American Museum of Natural History, and you can bet that the Dalton adcomm was thinking ahead to all those wonderful internships they could offer to future Dalton kids. That is not something you can match at every high end suburban HS. And multiply that by all the cutting edge industries in Manhattan, and you have a huge classroom of opportunities.
Oldfort, we plan to move back to the city after the kids are grown as well, but that is a solid decade away…</p>
<p>The school my niece attended in Los Angeles for K-12 is priced similarly to these NYC schools and the quality of the education she got doesn’t seem that great to me. These prices are not limited to NYC.</p>
<p>In addtion to networking for achieving economic/academic advantage for the kids, there is the aspect of social networking for the parents. Let’s face it, many of us parents end up socializing with the parents of our kids’s classmates’ parents. </p>
<p>Some social-climbing parents view $40 PreK an opportunity to sip Merlot with the hoity-toity.</p>