<p>My D is graduating from a public high school. The school considers the family the customer. This year her English class had 16 people, her math 6. The school hired away from a top private school a teacher experienced in reviewing/coaching etc. college app essays.</p>
<p>I went to ivy school, as did many parents, we know what to ask for, including writing, AP classes. There are about 120 students in my Ds grade, every sport and EC known. Every child gets to do a number of things. </p>
<p>There is a teachers union. I dont know what they do, other than run trips to Bermuda (for themselves) over the break. The head of the union runs the after school athletics for the elemenatary school students for a nominal fee. </p>
<p>The main difference to me is that public schools are required to respect all laws (eg, special needs). </p>
<p>What doesnt the school do that a private one does? No lunches in elementary (bring your own), no buses (get your own kid there -- which frankly considering the number of kids that either come early or stay late, would be tough), no summer school (if needed go to neighboring school). All these things give us a significantly lower than average cost per student in our county.</p>
<p>I can support the fact that Privates prepare better for college. I have experience with both. In addition, D (Private HS) indicated that she was prepared better in regualr / honors classes than others who took AP's at other schools. Her HS did not offer many AP's either and she was allowed to have no more than 3 AP's / year. Her better preparation resulted in certain college classes being much easier for her than for other students, which was recognized by her being hired as Suplemental Instructor to Chem. Prof (AP Chem. was not available at her HS).</p>
<p>There is a wide range of private high schools. Just in my area, there are many, many private schools, and they have very little in common other than they are private schools and charge tuition. Some are very selective, some take just about any warm body that walks in the door. </p>
<p>Families choose a private high school when they feel that it is a better fit for them and the child than their public school. Whether that is truly the case is not determinable on individual cases. Even the very best private schools have students that may have been better served elsewhere. An exception to this is if a family lives in an area where the public schools are truly terrible and dangerous.</p>
<p>Check out the pass rate(score of 3 to 5) of the public school systems ap classes. Where I am the pass rate for our pathetic public school system is 20% compared to 90% at our sons private school. School systems are pushing kids to take AP classes because for some bizarre reason people who judge schools look at how many kids are taking AP classes but do not take into consideration how they do on the tests. Go figure!</p>
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I can support the fact that Privates prepare better for college. I have experience with both.
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<p>That's not a fact, it's your experience with some subset of privates and publics. My <em>public</em> high school was far better academically than any other public or private school in my area.</p>
<p>However, there can be valid reasons to choose a private school over a public school. It all depends on the school and the kid. My sister and I, for instance, went to public schools throughout our whole childhood and are happy with this (especially as it meant that our parents saved more money for our college expenses). However, my littlest brother, who is in 5th grade, has gone to private schools for his whole educational career thus far. His parents (my mother and stepfather), chose to send him there because:</p>
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<li><p>The private school has stricter discipline. My sister and I didn't actually need this (and would probably have just been resentful had it been forced on us), but Littlest Brother does.</p></li>
<li><p>The private schools in that area start organized sports <em>much</em> earlier and at a more extensive level than the publics. This wasn't an issue for the rest of us, but for Littlest Brother, sports are what he is good at and gets a lot of self-worth from, and what build the discipline and concentration that he needs.</p></li>
<li><p>The private school is a more intimate environment - the students socialize together outside of school, the class sizes are small, etc. This is useful for Littlest Brother in ways that my sister and I just did not care about.</p></li>
<li><p>In addition, Littlest Brother is highly likely to want to go to a big state school for college, so his college costs will probably be less, balancing out the extra expense of private grade schools.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I could give a lot of reasons why I am glad that <em>I</em> went to public schools, but this thread is about the benefits (at least for some) of private schools, so I will refrain from that. :)</p>
<p>There's a wide range of private schools out there, a wide range of public schools, and a wide range of kids. Different people thrive under different circumstances.</p>
<p>D's Private HS had only 1 college counselor. 100% of graduates has always gone to 4 years colleges, no exception. Very high % of them receiving Merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I'm sure there are excellent public schools. I haven't seen too many of them these days, though. I went to public school, but both my kids went to private school, including boarding schools. In my view we provided the best education possible for our kids and there is absolutely no comparison to what the public schools in our area offered. There was an occasional bad teacher- but not many. I have seen many kids come out of "top" public high schools with poor writing skills and poor preparation for the workload of college, including some of my own relatives.</p>
<p>I agree with the fact that not all private or public schools are created equally. Our public school is considered a great school, but it is way too large for what we hoped for our kids' education. The private school my kids attend is considered pretty competitive to get into, but as I said, worth the financial hardship. There are the Catholic and other schools whose tuitions are closer to half of what we pay, but from what I have learned over the years is that they are mostly just a smaller version of what public schools have AND they work extremely well for the athlete who may do just OK in school but are a great football, soccer or hockey player (we have a ton of the latter around here both girls and boys).</p>
<p>I am looking at an envelope from the mail yesterday from one of my S's old highschool. This is something special about most private high schools. Most of them welcome alumni and keep in contact with them. They can become another home of sorts. You don't see that much with the public schools. In fact, there can be almost nothing left of your old public school and they may escort you out if you stop in for a peek or visit.</p>
<p>The other thing about private high schools is that you and your family choose the school instead of you being assigned to it. Though there are some public schools systems that offer options and choices, with a private school most everyone is there by choice which is not the case with many public school kids.</p>
<p>In our district, kids who leave the public school for one of the local privates are typically mediocre students whose parents think they need more individual attention. It is very rare for a top student to do so; in fact, the only one I can think of was a kid whose parent worked for the private school in question.</p>
<p>There are people who live in the district who have never sent their kids to public school. The ones I know are either the sort of people whose family simply assumes that everyone goes to private school just because that's what one does, or they are the sort who see it as a way to buy into a certain stratum of local society. A third type is the Catholic family that prefers to send their children to Catholic school. (Not as many of those here, since it is quite a hike to any Catholic elementary school.)</p>
<p>A friend's choice is common: their star student graduated from the local HS and is now at a HYPMS school; their younger child who was drifting a bit has been taken out and attends the private my S went to for a few early years when we first moved here.</p>
<p>I also know two families whose children left that same private school in the later years of elementary, after having struggled with LDs and having paid through the nose for [supposedly] special ed tutoring for several years. In both cases, the child's reading level went up several grade levels in a matter of months after entering public school. Probably because for the first time they were getting competent help. (Free.)</p>
<p>It's not that this particular private school is bad: I actually think it is quite good. But there are things that they cannot do and cannot seem to hire competent help to accomplish (dealing with LDs, for example). And there is generally no reason for good students at the top high schools to spend over $20K per year to go there. </p>
<p>As far as college admissions results go, the top local publics generally equal or outperform the local privates in admissions to Ivies, elite LACs like Williams, Swat, Bowdoin, other elite universities like Stanford, MIT, etc. What you don't find at the privates is a lot of students attending the state university. The lower end students at the privates will go to a lower end private or OOS public instead. ($$ talks.)</p>
<p>In our area there are many independent schools with admissions processes and entry stats that rival the top colleges. Those kids tend to be the cream of the crop of any of the excellent school districts here. There are also private schools that do not have as impressive stats as the publics, and parents have different reasons for putting their kids in those schools.</p>
<p>I did not send my kids to public schools because I did not want to deal with the board of education.<br>
I also know people who work for the board of Ed, and don't send their kids to public schools including a former chancellor.
OTOH if we live in the suburb, I will probably send them to public schools.
My kids private schools give them a good basic education. The kind of education I had growing up (foreign country) that lays a good foundation.
There are very few APs and the highest math is AP cal BC. Yet most of the kids go to highly selective colleges.
The problem I have with private schools is like leaving in a bubble. The population is too homogeneous.</p>
<p>Private schools get to just kick out the real problem kids. They do not have to deal with all the problem students who have no parent support that the average public school must deal with.</p>
<p>It sounds like it really depends where you live, etc. We bought our house in a very good suburban upstate NY school district even before we even had kids because of the district's reputation. My kids went through the public middle and high schools, which were excellent--and then one went to an all girls private Catholic HS--she is a junior, and the second one is in 9th grade at the public hs. (They got to choose where they wanted to go)</p>
<p>Do I see a difference? You bet. Both are good schools, but there are MANY more behavioral issues at the public hs. (Public has about 950 students, private has 400...but even so, the problems are way, way out of proportion--police being called,kids talking back to teachers,etc etc) You never see that at the private. (I know, I work here) There seems to be more grade inflation and less homework required at the public for comparable honors classes. The private school seems to have a much safer, more nurturing, family-like atmosphere, more personal attention. 2 girls who graduated from the private several years ago came back for a visit on a break their freshman year. They went to Smith and Vanderbilt and I asked them if the workload was hard and they both said it was nothing compared to their hs classes! Granted, they took very rigorous hs schedules, but this private hs isn't even known as the "best/most intense" all girls Catholic in town---we tend to take a more "holistic" admission approach, so even though it is college prep focused, they take kids of varying levels, whereas the top girls school takes only top students.</p>
<p>My d at the private was lamenting that she almost certainly could have gotten a higher gpa with less work if she had gone to the public where her sister attends, but realizes that for her, the private was the best fit and where she belongs.</p>
<p>I went to a public hs but after observing what I have, I now believe a single sex hs education can be very beneficial. My experience is with girls, of course, but I think it helps girls focus more on academics, leadership opportunities, being able to have fun and be silly, being able to speak up in class, not worry about clothes...(because they wear uniforms,etc.) without having the social pressures of having boys around.</p>
<p>D went to co-ed private school. Most times, year after year, few top graduates were girls. There is no benefit of single sex education that I can see or my D see. Girls are usually better students because they are more serious about their homework. Boys consider themselves above it, and even the most talented just do not measure up in work ethic. This is also my observation. I am not talking about adults, boys learn later on that they too have to work hard to achieve.</p>
<p>Drizzit, my Ds public schools does strongly "encourage" the problem children to exit, either to go to the country run alternative school or other alternative schools. While I hope it is for the childs best interest, to be honest it also seems to benefit the remaining students. Every year about 5% of the studends are attending, at public expense and with school arranged and paid for transport, alternative schools. My D had one friend who was sent to an alternative school, and is now attending a public in state college (not flagship, but still selective).</p>