If you attended private school, do/ will you send your DC to private school, too?

[ourbabygirl]

Just curious.

DH attended private school elementary through high school (and college, I guess).
I attended private school for 10th-12th grade (and college).
I would like to send our kids to private school, if we had the money, or even just in high school. Since we won't have the money and would rather use it on college, we're working to move to a slightly better school district (also closer to my parents and one sibling and their family).

How about you? What are you doing/ planning to do with your own kids? Reasons for your decision?

ETA Feel free to vote for multiple options as needed.
E.g., in my case I attended a little of both; or maybe you'll send some of your kids to private, some to public, some homeschooled, etc.

[BabbyO]

Our kids will go to public school even though I went to private school until HS. There is NO way we can afford private school. In retrospect, I'm not sure how my parents made it work. I think they really preferred the smaller class size.

I think we are in a slightly better school district than I was growing up. Additionally, I found it a hard transition in HS.

[LMPC]

I went to private thru first grade (so started public in 2nd). DD is now in preschool and we will probably switch her to public for kindy...and if not for kindy, then for 1st.

[katydid1971]

There is no way that I could send my kids to private school and still save for college and/or retirement. We have a FANTASTIC public school and I am very lucky that right now I don't need to consider it.
BTW I went to the "bad" public high school and all of my group of friends graduated from college and several have advanced degrees. A couple are doctors, one is lawyer and one is an experimental physicist Phd at Cal Berkley. I think family and peers are more important than attend the "right" school. JMO

[Indianamom2]

I went to private K-college.

Ds went to small-town public schools and a mix of public and private colleges.

We are sending our kids to a Christian school that has grades K-12. I have no idea how we will afford both kids, but we have a couple more years to figure it out! The public schools in our area are pretty lousy. Maybe they're ok for elementary, but the high schools scare me.

[Simon]

I voted other.
I attended both private and public schools K-college.
Dh attended public K-12, private college.

Dc will attend whatever school best suits their needs:public, private or homeschool. Ds1 is going to start his second year in public elem. We will reevaluate each year what is the best choice for our boys.

[codex57]

Went to private from pre-K to 4th grade. Public from there on out.

Sending to public. I moved here because of the public schools (of course, with what I'm paying in property taxes, it's like paying for private school). I'm not philosophically opposed to private, but only if the public options are inadequate. However, I'd rather work to get into an area with a good public so I'm not forced to make that decision. If there's a good public option, I don't see the point in private. Even for undergrad, I want them to go to a public school because I don't see the benefit after considering cost. After that, whichever one works.

[GaPeach_in_Ca]

Both DH & I attended public schools (with the excpetion of one year I lived overseas and attended an American school). We are sending our kids to public. We have always planned to send them to public.

However, now that my son is in 3rd grade, I can see circumstances where I would send my kids to private. There is an excellent boy's high school here that I would consider. Of course, it's very hard to get into. Also, I have a "wait & see" approach to middle school. I just don't know yet.

[Jai]

I went to private thru first grade (so started public in 2nd). DD is now in preschool and we will probably switch her to public for kindy...and if not for kindy, then for 1st.

:yeahthat: except I started public in 3rd grade and I have a DS.

[daniele_ut]

I went to private school through HS. DS attends private school because DH works there and the tuition is free. We live in a good school district and would be sending him to our neighborhood school if not for the tuition remission at his current school.

[jenmcadams]

I voted went to public, sending to private.

I went to public and my kids have attended an amazing neighborhood elementary school, but we're strongly considering switching to private at middle school. The public middle schools are not great (with the exception of two in the whole district and those are entirely lottery based (less than 30% of kids get in) - bummer since one is across the street from us) and while the high schools are fine, I worry about class sizes (which are already 35ish in most classes in high school and are slated to go up as planned budget cuts continue) and also about kids not being well rounded. In our public middle schools, a language will count as your elective and you won't have a period left for an arts type elective. Around here, you don't do both music and sports in public b/c the commitment required by both is so high. Also, the public school kids have a lot of pressure to rack up as many AP or IB classes as possible and competition for class rank is fierce.

In contrast, at the private independent schools, they don't rank the class, they require an arts/music class everyday along with a language and athletic participation (practice times are built in as the last period of the day and kids not on a team can choose from other PE/Gym options). They also de-emphasize AP classes, but are still known for having great challenging honors classes (a lot of top boarding schools have started moving in the Honors direction b/c there's been some research that AP class curricula leave a lot to be desired). The college admissions stats are good at these schools and that's somewhat important to me, but I honestly care more about my DCs experience from 6th - 12th at this point. I'm worried about my kids learning to write effectively in a high school english class with 35-40 kids. If that teacher has 5-6 sections of kids, how are they supposed to give good feedback on 200+ essays. Having said all of that, it's super competitive to get in to the schools we're looking at and they're ridiculously expensive ($22K/year). We're also in a pickle b/c the middle schools we're looking at start in 6th and in our district we don't start middle school until 7th. So, we have to apply this year (DD is in 5th) and make the decision without knowing what our public middle school option would be.

[StantonHyde]

DH went to public 1st-Med school

I went to public 1st-12 and then private for college and grad school.

I would prefer to send the DCs to public school because its free and its important that kids learn to get along with a variety of kids. But DS's dyslexia would not be addressed in public school until he was in 3rd grade!! So we had to put him in private--tried one school and it didn't work so we went to the parochial school where his tutor is. It's a great fit for him. Since we did private for DS, we figured we should do the same for DD--she is in another school that is a great fit for her.

Our public school has class sizes ranging from 25-33 (no thanks) and in our neighborhood the majority of the kids there would be just like the DCs-white, upper middle class. They get wayyyyy more soci-economic and racial diversity in parochial school because the diocese awards scholarships. So private school actually meets more of the reasons for why we wanted to send them to public school than the public school does!

The sticking point is the religion aspect. I do ok since I was raised Episcopalian and I use what they learn as a conversation starter. Poor DH who was raised "nothing" has more issues with it but he sees how well the kids are doing in their schools and that's what really counts right now.

[Gena]

I went to Catholic (private) school K-12.

Ideally, I would have wanted to send DS to Catholic school too. But the Catholic schools in our area do not have the special education services DS needs. Our public school district has excellent special ed services, so that's where he is.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i went to private school for K-12, with the exception of 2nd and 3rd grade, bc we had moved. My mom was very dead set on sending me to private school, due to our background (Catholic, Hispanic, etc).

i plan on sending both DCs to public schools. the public schools are really good around here (part of the reason we moved to this town), it's a safe neighborhood. In our case, we'd rather save the extra money for college.

[belovedgandp]

I had a fine Catholic experience, but realized mid-HS that I missed out on many opportunities that my public school peers had. We didn't have any instrumental music, science classes were limited, extra curricular activities that weren't sports just not supported.

Even my mother says if she'd known what she was signing me up for when I was going to K she might not have done it in the end.

The public schools in our area are fantastic and offer so many more opportunities for kids needing special services on both ends of spectrum. My oldest is already being challenged in third grade with programs that others in Catholic school by us couldn't dream of.

Public was our choice for several reasons - extra programs, neighborhood school that we can walk to, financial. We could have swung the finances of Catholic, but it would have had me having to go back to work when the kids get older instead of if I want to and lets us comfortably save for retirement and college.

[smilequeen]

I went to private, DH went to private. We live in what is supposed to be an excellent school district. My kids go to private right now b/c I just do not like how public schools educate young children, but I'm not opposed to sending them to public at the Jr. High/HS level. We'll just have to see what works for them then.

[daisysmom]

Me and my siblings all went to public school in fairway county, va. I went public through college. We will send our dd to private. My mother was a stay at home mom and made it her job to make sure that my siblings and I were getting the best and most challenging education is the school could offer. She was very involved. As a working mom, I just can't be as involved. And we live in an area with not great public schools. I like where we live bc it has always been close to where my dh and I work, and with a young child at home, I saw such value in having an 8 minute commute to and from work so much more daily time with dd. but now as school decision time, we see the downside in that.
The private schools where we live are excellent so that's the route we will take.

[okinawama]

I went to private school k-6 and public 7-12.
DH went to private school K-12.

I voted other because we plan to send our kids to the school we feel is that best fit for our kids, whether that be public or private. There are lots of things we will consider when making the choice, and due to our frequent moving, we'll be weighing our options over and over.

[melrose7]

I attended a Catholic school from 1st-12th and had always planned on my kids doing the same. But with DD1 nonverbal and autistic she needs a full time aide and there are no services for her in the private schools. I am having a hard time with it and a lot of "Catholic guilt". DD2 is also going public to make it easier that they are in the same school.

I was taught growing up that private school kids are better than public school kids and I need to get that out of my head. When DH met my mother for the first time and found out he went to public school (not sure of the conversation, but something about the small town he is from), she asked if he could read. Really!! I couldn't believe it. He still brings it up, jokingly, but he hasn't forgotten she said that to him. She knows DD1 needs the help she hasn't said anything to us about going the public school route.

[mom2akm]

I voted other. I went to both public and private school. We started the children in a private school and went for 4 years and decided to change because of the distance. Now I've developed a motto, 'Free is better' unless I've tried it and it doesn't work. I would only send a child to private for religious reason or if he or she has special need.

[dcmom2b3]

I attended both public (K-6 and law school) and private (7-11 and college). DD has gone to public the past two years, will be starting in a private K-12 school next week. I've chosen this private school for a very specific reason -- it's French immersion and dual-language French/English instruction through MS. In other words, her best shot at becoming fluent in her dad's family's language without living in a francophone household. It's also IB all 12 years (which appeals to MY inner nerd).

Who's to say that she'll be there for the next 13 years, maybe we'll move back to public after MS? We'll see . . .

[Karenn]

I went to private elementary and public middle and high school. DH went private all the way through graduate school, except for 2 years of high school.

We thought we were going to send our kids to public school. Then we got there and realized it wasn't what we were hoping it would be at all. We often wonder if our own private school elementary experience skewed our expectations for how elementary school should look. Our local public school was drastically different from our own private education, and very different from the education our kids are getting now in private school. We want to keep them in private school as long as we possibly can. I have no idea how long that will be. It could be just this next year, or it could be until they graduate. It all depends on the economy around here.

[ahisma]

I attended public. DH attended mainly private.

The kids will attend public, exclusively.

Ironically, we live in the same (highly rated) public district that DH lived in when he went private. DH's grandfather was one of the founders of a local religious college and believed strongly in the value of a religious education. DH did receive a very good education, but those same schools are now pretty much out of reach for the middle class. That, combined with our strong support for public education (when practical) and the fact that DH is a teacher at a public school pretty much cement our decision to send the kids to public.

[queenmama]

DH was in a private Christian school K-12 and I was in public except for one year in the same kind of school as his.

DS has attended a pre-K-12 private independent day school since K (he went to a different pre-K) and he's now in 7th. He will graduate from this school as we have no intention of ever leaving.

DH's school wasn't an option for a variety of reasons, and Henry is an extremely bright child who we thought would benefit from the small class sizes and excellent curriculum. He's taken French from day one (and has since added Spanish, Chinese, and Latin), there is art and theater and music as well as physical education and sports teams. We love how this place has enriched him, and we feared that with his personality he'd fall though the cracks in public school.

The tuition is a challenge, but apart from our faith this is the greatest thing we can give him. It's not a sacrifice, it's a priority.

[essnce629]

I attended private K through college, except for 2 1/2 years when we lived overseas. Don't know how my mom did it since she was a single mom making very little money for most of that time.

DBF attended private K through college as well. His schools were not religious private schools while mine (except college) were.

Our kids will go to public elementary and middle school (we're at a great k-8 grade charter that we LOVE) and then we'll probably do private high school since the high school options out here aren't that great and there's a private high school less than a mile away. My private k-8 grade school had super small class sizes (under 20 kids), but the private schools out here do not. My best friend and her DH are teachers at a private catholic school and have 33-35 kids in each class and it's the same at the other private schools I've looked into out here. DS1's charter school has 22 kids max in each class which I think is great.

I went to catholic school from k through high school, and even though I loved it, looking back I feel like I missed out on some of the extra classes kids at public schools got to take since I always had to take some type of religious class each sememster. I also feel now like I was in a little bubble since I was never around anyone of a different faith. I didn't even know anyone who was of a different religion till recently, and growing up I remember thinking that everyone was catholic when I was a child. It's nice that DS1 is in public school and has a lot of friends that are Jewish, etc that celebrate different holidays and traditions.

[niccig]

I was public K through college. DH was public until grade 10 then the school district was cutting music, art, band, PE and his parents moved him to Catholic HS. He went to public college.

DS is in private school and we don't know for how long. We reassess every year if it's the right place for him. One possible option is that when I'm done with grad school, I can try to get job working for one of the 2 great nearby school districts, then DS can go there for MS and HS.

[newnana]

I went to a small town public school K-12. Only option.
DH went private religious K-12 in a city.

DD is and will be private independent K-12 unless something drastic changes.

Our school district is wretched. It wasn't when we bought the house and we bought when the market was high. At the time I was working from home and DH worked 8 minutes away. Oh how our situation has changed...

I now work about 40 minutes away when there is not traffic. DD goes to school near my work. We love the school. She averages 10 kids in her class, has PE every day, big emphasis on music, art, spanish, science, in addition to the core curriculum. 2 full time master's degree teachers.

We love the school, but it is $$. It is part of why we have 1 child. We can afford this school for 1 kid, but not more if we are still saving for retirement and college. In addition to the commute and how little time we feel like we get to spend with DD and each other, it didn't make sense to us to have another.

I would be willing to move to a better school district and send DD to public, but we coldn't come close to selling our house for what we paid for it or buy a house half this size in the school districts we would prefer. It doesn't make sense to us the way we have tried calculating it to move and reset the clock on our mortgage for half the house while taking a big financial hit on the current one. Which really stinks. Plus, this school district was not bad when we moved in, so who is to say moving gets us what we really want long term? With our private school, we know what we are getting into each year and what the school is trying to achieve. So for now, that's the plan.

[lizzywednesday]

I attended parochial school for Pre-K through 8th grade.

I desperately wanted to attend parochial high school because I didn't know if I could handle being in a public school environment, having been told my entire life that public school was the dregs of society, etc.

My parents had the first (of several) financial discussions with me at that point - they basically told me that a parochial school wasn't the be-all-and-end-all of education and, well, they really couldn't afford it anyway.

I attended public high school and a public university. I turned out OK. (I also learned about the kinds of learning environments that would have helped me excel educationally and develop better habits than my parochial school experience. Being above or below level in my grammar school was a kind of disadvantage - you either struggled or you coasted. I was above level and I coasted, which set me up with some very poor habits for study skills, etc., going into high school.)

For DD, well ... our current school district has a dreadful reputation. DH has a pipe dream of "renting" a room from his parents and enrolling DD in the school system of the neighboring district (in another COUNTY no less!) but his SIL is a teacher in district and she's vowed to "c-block" him on this plan.

I think it's a stupid idea because we can get in a LOT of trouble (um, fraud, anyone?) and risk losing a lot of things. (I even have nightmares that we could lose custody of DD, but that's probably far-fetched.)

I'd rather send her to private school, but we can't afford the nearby non-parochial school ... and I'm conflicted about sending her to parochial school when we're not religious - that kind of feels like lying to me, though I know plenty of people probably do it. (The nearest parochial is a Catholic school; I grew up Catholic. DH grew up Lutheran. While the basic tenets of the faith are the same, there are some differences that worry DH. Me, I'm just going with what I know and if my kid can get a better education at a Catholic school than the local Public, I'm going to choose the Catholic school.)

So, we're an "other" - DH believes in the public school system, and, honestly, I do too. We just have reservations about the public school system in our district.

[mikeys_mom]

DH and I both attended private religious schools. We were at different schools as we grew up in different cities but both had very similar religious philosophies.

We have all our kids at a private school with the same religious philosophy. We have excellent public schools and I'd love to save the money to be able to send my kids there but religious education is very important to us and they would not get that level of education in the public system.

That being said, the cost of non-Catholic religious education in our province is astronomical. We are the only province in Canada that funds only the Catholic schools and no other religious schools. It has been a big election issue several times. We sacrific alot to be able to send our kids to religious school. The community does help with lots of funding but still, about 40% of our student population is on subsidy.

[khalloc]

I attended private Catholic school from Kindergarten - 6th grade. I attended public high school from 7-12th grades (all in the same school).

I will be sending my kids to public school.

DH went to public school.

[Philly Mom]

I went to private through K, public 1-6 and private from 7 through law school. DH went to public all the way. Our DC will go to public unless there is a particular reason why they need something specialized. We have excellent public schools and we chose our house so we could choose to keep DC in public school. I am sure that DC will go private for university, etc.

[geochick]

Both. I went to a private school. I sent my kids to a private school until I found a great charter school. The charter was started by several of the teachers from the private school I went to, so I'm super thrilled. It's worth the 30 minute commute.

[endlessheather]

Neither DH nor I have attended private. However, my younger sisters did end up in private. Our son started private Kinder. last year and there were a lot of factors for us. First off, it was actually cheaper than our current daycare monthly cost was. It would be nice to save that money but we really wanted him to have full day Kindergarten and going private was our only option to do that. We are sticking with it because we have loved the small class sizes, the classes they get (technology, library, spanish, art, music, pe. - some of these are sacrificed at our local public schools) and how close knit the school community and families are. Our private school stops at 5th grade and they feed into the public middle school.

[megs4413]

I started public in 4th so I did both as a kid. My kids will go to private school. I like the small community feel. I know that you can find that in some public schools, but not the ones around here!

[brittone2]

We both attended public K-12. I attended a private university for my combo undergrad/graduate degree, and DH attended a public university for undergrad and graduate school.

Our SD has a good reputation, but we have opted to HS. Our reasons are frequently in line with the reasons parents cite for choosing private.

[MelissaTC]

Both of us went to Caholic schools, private Caholic HS and private colleges/universities. M has been at a private, Catholic school since K. There is lots we like about it, some things we don't. Our schools had more religious and ethnic diversity where as M's doesn't. I guess it is location since we both are born and bred NYers. We live in Stepford here.

If our public school system could offer smaller classes, stability, real music and arts programs and a true sense of community, he would attend.

[gatorsmom]

DH went to a large public high school and hated it. He said on graduation day he didn't know most of the people who went up for their diplomas. He said he doesn't want that for our kids. I went to a small private grade school, high school and college. Whenever I see someone from my grade school and high school they are always friendly and talkative. I want that for my kids.

We have the means and my kids are all in a small private school. Fortunately this school is willing to work with us to accommodate Greenbean's Sensory Processing Disorder. Other than the size and the family-feeling that flourish in this school, our children go to mass daily. Their academics are very strong. The parents are very involved and all are amazingly devout Catholics. It's really a fantastic community to be a part of. The school teaches K-12. We plan to stay for high school too, particularly because the other high schools in the area have some things we are not comfortable with.

I've been saving for college since Gator was 4yo (Cha Cha was 2 and the twins were infants). They may have to take out some loans anyway, but hopefully our 529s will cover the majority of it.