re: Baton Rouge private schools vs. public schools

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what kind of support would you like? Will the numbers per grade at St Jude be sufficient or do you need names too? The book is sitting right here next to me. The class size limit is 32.

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If that is true then your school has major problems. 32:1 at a Catholic school is ridiculous and is in direct conflict with the school's mission.

How is a 1st grade teacher supposed to provide the care and attention to each individual child expected and required when there are 32 kids in her class? Even with a teacher's assistant (which are only part time employees) she can't do it.

For first grade this year, they do split up the class during Math and Reading, so it isn't 32 at all times. They have 2 additional teachers to handle part of each section during those subjects.

That said, St Jude and St George are both turning out some ridiculously solid students, so things seem to be working out OK for them.

Is there REALLY a great difference between a class of 26 and a class of 32? Why is 26 your magic number? Does one additional row of kids make THAT much of a difference.

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where do you live? I think that number is fairly standard for BR. However, I will say there is a teacher and a teacher's aide in ever class, so obviously that helps the ratio too.

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I live in Lafayette and there are no catholic elementary/middle in the Diocese of Lafayette schools that allow those kind of student:teacher ratios in the school. None. Administrators will routinely turn down the children of owner Church Parish Parishners before they would consider messing with their student:teacher ratios.

Matter of fact we just had registration and we had 19 children of Parishioners that were turned down for Pre-K because after siblings, children of alumni and children of faculty were admitted, there were only 6 slots left out of 54 (3 sections pf Pre-K)

32:1 would get a principal fired and a priest reassigned unless they had special approval from the Education Superintendent of the Diocese of Lafayette, and I can tell you they wouldn't get it.

Believe me people, Ascension Parish schools are not that good. If you have been reading the paper many people moved there from BR because of the school system. Many who moved to nice houses and in the subdivision that fed into Dutchtown High or St. Amant High are currently up in arms. The school board changed the attendence zones and find that their kids will have to go to East Ascension High. East Ascension has practically turned into the Donaldsonville High on the east bank. East Ascension has many discipline problems like fights,etc. EA is definitely not the school it was in the past. Do research and see what elementary schools feed into EA. If you see the schools that feed into EA, then you will see why the parents who became the victims of the zone change are up in arms.

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Is there REALLY a great difference between a class of 26 and a class of 32? Why is 26 your magic number?

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it is not MY number, it is the number set after extensive research by the Superintendent Of Education for the Diocese of Lafayette.

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Does one additional row of kids make THAT much of a difference.

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ask the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade teachers at your school what they think about the difference of that one additional row of students creates.

I am paying $4000 a year for my kid to be in the best environment with the best care and attention I can afford. I am not paying $4000 for them to be packed like sardines in a classroom and having half of their education coming from an uncertified part-time teacher's assistant.

26:32 is 6 more kids. 6 more kids that can get sick, can be in a bad mood, can have an accident, can get in trouble for talking, that may have to go to the bathroom, that may need the teacher's help, and 6 more sets of parents for the teacher to deal with

The best school in the Lafayette Area is Episcopal School of Acadiana (which has tuition of $9000/year and is a Top 5 school in the state) and the maximum allowable student:teacher ratio from K-12th grade is 18 kids but they prefer to keep it around 15 kids.

Why do you think that is?

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Does anyone have kids that attend West Feliciana schools.

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I do not, but have a friend that does and they love thier school. They live in St. Francisville and if I ever leave Central, that is where I am headed!!!!!!!!!

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live in St. Francisville and if I ever leave Central, that is where I am headed

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You need to get out to ZTown. St. fran is too close to Jackson. EF is like a 3rd world country, but worse.

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% wise, do you think private schools turns out more successful college students/young professionals in their social, acadameic in their professional lives?

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yeah but that's like saying does a sample made up of a vast majority of the upper/middle classes have a better shot of social advancement than a sammple made up of more than a majority of the lower class

BTW just to the point of this thread. Zachary, when it was a part of EBRPSS, owned private schools in terms of education/price. Now that we have our own school district, its not even close. I would say Zachary probably out performs many private schools in the area. And its free.

Your basically saying that the Catholic schools in BR are more concerned about money than they are about a child's education. Blasphemy