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Slate: If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by lcjjdnh, Aug 29, 2013.

  1. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Said rich billionare likely paying high property taxes to fund public schools.

    I've never understood why parents of "bright" kids should be compelled to
    send their child to a pubic school in the interest of helping others.

    Maybe the parents in the poor schools need to get more involved in making them
    better.
     
  2. X-Hack

    X-Hack Well-Known Member

    I say let people do what they want with the money -- nobody has an obligation to live modestly and give to charity just becaue they have bank. Just don't pull your kids out of the public schools and then actively push to gut those public schools
     
  3. lcjjdnh

    lcjjdnh Well-Known Member

    Should we also absolve of responsibility parents that refuse to vaccinate their children even though that puts other children at risk?
     
  4. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I am a huge proponent of public schools, but the idea of "sacrificing" your own child for the greater good is a total non-starter for me. It's great that Amy Carter went to a D.C. public school with her armed guards, but that just isn't reality.

    But the part about the parental involvement is the key. If those private school parents went to the public schools, the public schools would be better because of the kids and parents who are involved in them. (At the risk of getting too political, it's not difficult to see the connection between Republicans being far more likely to go the private-school route and Republicans being far more likely to reduce funding for public education and support vouchers and other government support of private schools.)

    What really burns me is the bit of conspiracy around private schools. We have several here. A few of them are undeniably better than the public schools. Some others, a little less so. And then there is one that is like the safety school or community college of private education. Not only does the performance not measure up to the other private schools, it isn't even better than the public schools in the area. All of the other private schools know this and it burns them up that they're all lumped in. But because they all have this code of secrecy, nobody says anything, so parents are lured into thinking they're getting so much more for their $50,000. If they were under the test-score and college-enrollment microscope that public schools are, everybody would know this. Instead it's a very small percentage of people who do.

    Private schools have gotten to be like wine or cars. People think they're getting more because they're spending more. But that is not always the case.
     
  5. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    On my list of priorities as a parent, doing what's best for my child is not only No. 1 on the list, it IS the list. Now, what's best for my child is not always going to be what my child wants -- in fact, it is often the exact opposite of what he or she wants -- but it is always the motivation and driving force behind every parenting decision.
     
  6. What type of fishing line do you like to use?
     
  7. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    The insipidity of the Slate piece notwithstanding, I actually did feel a little liberal guilt when my daughter got the opportunity to attend a private school. It lasted about 40 seconds.

    And I'd be lying if I said she didn't get a better education or wasn't put in a better position to succeed by attending that private school.

    That said, I pay my property taxes and I always vote in favor of the school budget. I sleep OK.
     
  8. waterytart

    waterytart Active Member

    The local Country Day is $275,410 for Pre-K through twelfth grade. If you have one child, that's a moderate home in a decent school district. If you have two kids, $550,000 is a nice home in an excellent district. Once the kids are gone, you've still got that house.

    Stipulated the numbers don't work in Silicon Valley or Manhattan but, in most of the country, religion is the only reason to pay private-school tuition.
     
  9. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    cran, wouldn't the public school had done the job if all those kids had gone there (and their parents had been involved)?

    Everyone is always looking at what Finland does. It's the model for the world. Now, Finland has too many differences to count with the U.S. (the single culture being the most prominent one), but the fact that there is almost no private schooling in Finland is noteworthy. The whole country has the same investment in education.
     
  10. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I think so much of this depends on what state you live in.

    Both of my sons are in public schools and they have 15 students per class and both classes have a primary teacher and a teacher's aid. That's pretty incredible...

    Growing up in California, we frequently had classes with 35+ kids and I don't know if we ever saw a teacher's assistant for more than a month or two at a time. Most of my friends who are still in California who can afford it, have their kids in private schools.

    For anyone to make a blanket statement that one was is right and the other way is wrong is just idiotic.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    For $550,000, it better be a "nice home." Goodness.
     
  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    That's about the minimum for a "liveable" single-family home in my area.
     
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