re: Raising kids: Public vs Private

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that's certainly possible... regardless, wouldn't you rather have your children hang out with kids who have parents like this?

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I went to private school most of my schooling but not all, and there are plenty of kids in private school with terrible parents. I knew kids whose parents were wealthy and never home, I knew a lot of kids basically kicked out of public school so they went to private, I knew a lot of kids who were very smart but had divorced parents or other issues they were dealing with at home.

The argument is absolutely not is private better than public. You have to look at your options on hand. I finished Hs at a great public Hs and it was leaps and bounds better than any of the private schools I went to, and I went to a very good private HS one year. The resources of the large and good public school were just fantastic. If you go to a large public Hs for example and you are a good student, most of your classes you are not exposed to a lot of the bs because you are in Ap or other excelled classes. But I also saw some amazing private schools during sports and what not.

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that's certainly possible... regardless, wouldn't you rather have your children hang out with kids who have parents like this?

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Yes and no. A balance would be ideal to keep things in perspective IMO.

agree to disagree

and like lou just said, a lot of middle class people can afford the catholic schools here, and obviously not everyone in every private school has a great home life.

i just don't see the benefit of going to school with POS kids.

Wife and I are having this discussion now about our daughter. Our son is fine in public, and we're in a great school district, so we'd probably leave him. Daughter though is bringing home 100's on every report card, and we worry she's not being challenged enough. She's in the 4th grade and the private school we'd likely send her to doesn't start until 8th grade though, so we have a year or two to decide.

If the public schools are awful, you have to move heaven and earth to give your kids another option.

If the schools are good, here is what I look at.

1) Private school for elementary is completely unnecessary. For HS, it's mostly about buying opportunities for your kids - getting access to alumni.

2) Private HS are generally smaller. Are they going to offer the same enrichment and extra-curricular activities as a larger public high school?

3) More money - higher class drugs, more snobbery, etc.

4) Richer parents don't make for any more motivated kids. Parents can suck at being parents regardless of how much is in their bank account, and it shows. Good parents will have successful kids.

Also, do your own research into Common Core. It's a set of standards that makes a whole lot of sense, if you are willing to take some time and read about them. Some of the methods used to implement said standards are different than what we used, but, they are easy to figure out and the kids are a lot further along than we were.

The academics are somewhat like the athletics, I think it's a good comparison and obvious. Public school has a larger base but not selective, private has a smaller but more selective base that can bring in kids from other areas. But who wins the athletic competitions? Unless you are talking one of the top 2-3 private schools in the state, usually the large public schools win. The cream rises to the top. But most importantly, is that bit of a difference worth paying for? I can tell you that for every great private school athletically there are probably 5 or more that are average at best. I think that's a good parallel for academics.

Sure at public schools you have a good majority of idiots, but those idiots aren't taking calculus, Ap classes, etc. and at your larger public schools your better students will be enrolled in mostly those types of classes junior and senior year.

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again, the graduates from the local catholic school are doing so much better than my classmates it isn't funny.

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yet...you made it

and I always find it kinda funny that people spend thousands for private school, then their kids end up at LSU with all the public school trash anyways

I suppose, but I think I would be better off if I went to catholic school.

This whole thread is filled with half arse assumptions and thinly veiled stereotypes about people, families, education, and institutions.
I don't come across many instances where a school makes or breaks an individual students opportunities for future academic success or lifelong happiness. There's kids who go from $50-$60k private schools like The Lawrenceville School or Exeter Prep to a nice drug rehab facility. Just like there are kids who go from underfunded inner city schools to Harvard and Stanford. I know examples of both.
Academic suscess has more to with the families themesleves and the environment at home.
I remember when I used to be a college ambassador and HS kids and parents would ask me about drugs on college campuses. I would tell them that I'm sure there were, I just have no idea where to find them. Point being your going to find whatever is your looking for wherever your child goes to school. This applies to fellow students, good courses, good teachers etc.. Every institution has it all.
If your doing the right things at home, a school isn't going to hold your child back. For instance our children are good students, but they still go to tutoring every week. Not to reinforce what's being taught in school, they go for subjects they haven't had yet in school.
The family is the most important part of the education puzzle.
As for most of the catholic schools in Louisiana, Ive long felt they were severely overrated. It's the best many can do towards the goal of segregation. As if sitting next to a child who is poor, a minority, or comes from weak familial support will make your child dumber. I agree the students who are in the catholic schools are experiencing more academic suscess in the places mentioned, but I don't attribute it to the institutions themselves.