re: Map showing % of children enrolled in Private Schools 1-12

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Being in one of the few parishes that have great public schools is quite excellent.

I'd like to see a per parish breakdown of that map bc I'm sure Orleans, Jefferson and BR make that outcome as radical as it appears.

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nah,

st landry is one of the poorer parishes but exact same scenario.

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 I assumed you referred to some sort of tax credit for private schools. 

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We get to write off 5k in private school tuition in LA. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't amount to much. Maybe a few hundred less in state taxes.

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We get to write off 5k in private school tuition in LA

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Is that it? Is that per child? Only for state and not federal? That isn’t shite compared to what I pay.

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In my opinion, it appears to be more of a culture issue. The private schools have taken all of the decent families out of the public system and has become entrenched. Public education will never improve because none of the good families appear to want to be the first to take the plunge.

Private schools where I am are very few in number and cater really only to the upper class. The rural areas still have some segregation academies.

The public high school I went to was about a 50/50 split racially. It included a cross section of wealth. It had trash, it had fights, but it also had a lot of achieving students who have gone on to do great things. Hell, I think it did a lot of good for everyone to be around all that diversity.

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You pretty much hit the nail on the head with most of this. It sucks because those of us who would like to see the state do better educationally are simply SOL. As I said in the OP, i'm not Catholic but I want my kid to go to a good school. Louisiana's education system provides me with crappy schools. Some have pointed out some decent schools but there looks to be a handful in the entire state.... and those aren't THAT great.

Good to get an outsider's perspective. So many here attended private schools and are attached at the hip to them, so it's like pulling teeth to get them to admit that it's not normal to have this many private schools.

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Why do La kids score so poorly on tests if such a large number go to private school?

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pretty sure those in private schools aren't required to do any standardized tests...

I wonder what color DC is?!

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Public education will never improve because none of the good families appear to want to be the first to take the plunge.

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As someone who attended public school in EBR from K-12 and who has kids in private school, I will give you my perspective. I got a decent public education. To get that education, I had to apply to the gifted program and then be willing to accept 45 min - 1 hr one-way drive to and from the 'underprivileged' school I attended. I had friends who were sent across town while another friend was sent local. Same age, same grade, but sent to different schools. In high school I had the option of attending a local school and so I chose to do that. I took all the college bound courses and that insulated me from those cared less about learning.

What I value in private education is that my kid will graduate from a school where they have been there from K-12. Some of the kids will have been together that entire time. School pride? Got it. Life-long friends. Yep, got that too. Good education? Absolutely. Involved parents? We're good there too.

In today's EBR public school system, my children would get none of this. Solve the socioeconomic problems of the 'underprivileged' students and maybe the schools will improve. However, my kids won't voluntarily be sent into that system as long as I have the means. I can't wait until they go to college so I will save money.

When I was in private school I got a 21 and was the 3rd lowest in my class. I was and still am the village idiot.

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Same here but I have two

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Catholic, non-religious or another denomination?

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it appears to be more of a culture issue. The private schools have taken all of the decent families out of the public system and has become entrenched. Public education will never improve because none of the good families appear to want to be the first to take the plunge.

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Louisiana has some unique cultural divides. South Louisiana is mostly Catholic. That area actually had rural towns where the only school was a Catholic one. Spain and France governed that area before the US took it over. There has always been a segment of South Louisiana's population that attended Catholic Schools.

North Louisiana is more like East Texas, or Mississippi. Way more Protestant than Catholic. The larger towns always had a Catholic school, but there were hardly any other private schools in the northern part of the state until integration started. There are lots of Christian schools in North Louisiana now, and there's been a huge increase in Charter schools since they started getting state money.