Why expensive private schools, especially if you are zoned for good or even great schools? (Atlanta: homes, top school)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by dtbatlanta

The discussion was "Are private schools safer than public"? Yes!

That may be true if you're looking at public schools in troubled neighborhoods.

But it's hard to believe that private schools are any safer than our upper tier public schools.

[dtbatlanta]

I agree with you, I'd say they are the same. What is funny about that is the other posts are talking about the socioeconomic wall the private schools put up...the upper tier public schools (with few exceptions) have the same wall.

[dtbatlanta]

They are similarly safe because they are, for the most part, made up of similar demographics/similar socioeconomic background.

[CMMom]

Originally Posted by dtbatlanta

I agree with you, I'd say they are the same. What is funny about that is the other posts are talking about the socioeconomic wall the private schools put up...the upper tier public schools (with few exceptions) have the same wall.

Exactly. One good thing about having kids at private school is that you can live where you want to without having to worry about school zones, redistricting, etc... And you can't tell me that you don't pay a premium to live in a district with a good public school like East Cobb (Walton, Pope), Sandy Springs (Riverwood), or north Fulton (Johns Creek, Alpharetta). We love our neighborhood, but were less than thrilled with the public school options. We would have had to move to get into a more "desirable" school district.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

So true, because APS is actively hiding students shanking each other on the daily, along with the occasional teacher. You guys have got to be kidding. Maybe instead of coming online and spreading lies and mis information you could go volunteer at some of these schools or one of the many after school programs in the city. Hit me on the PM and I'll give you the appropriate contact info.



They are. For every DM Therrell or South Atlanta there is a Grady or North Atlanta. And even with the hood schools, I don't think a lot of these people saying stuff like that realize how many of the knuckleheads drop out by 10th grade. I went to what would be considered a "hood school" and most of the really bad kids were in the streets by soph. year.

GA DOE has the discipline records here. They have an Excel doc you can download and sort. For example, Woodland Middle School had 465 counts of fighting over one school year, 751 counts of disorderly conduct, 61 gang related counts (not sure exactly what counts here), 172 counts of threats/intimidation, and a bunch of other stuff.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

35 fights? Dude I went to some rough schools and I never saw 35 fights in one day. Never. Where was this? I'm sure it wasn't here.. Full Disclosure- I got kicked out of North Atlanta High for fighting on the last day of classes my 9th grade year. And I didn't even start it, I got jumped by 3 other guys and they kicked all 4 of us out. APS does not play that mess at all. They will kick you out and send you to night school or some other alternative program in a hot second. All this fights happen daily and other violence is so common that the local news won't even report it is a bunch of hogwash and fairy tales from people who never even set foot in any of tbese schools. I am an APS product and I still am actively involved with youth in this city. The kids you see on the nightly news for shooting and carjacking at gas stations aren't going to school. To equate one with the other is just pure laziness IMO.

It was in Texas.

Now in DeKalb, McNair MS had an unbelievable number of reported (i.e. a lot less than the actual number since the teachers don't see all of them) fights. There was an article that came out a couple of years ago. I suspect they topped my school. It wasn't 35 a day, but that was an unusual day. Don't quote me, but I think it was over 1000 in a year.

So maybe North Atlanta was tough on fighters, but every school isn't. It varies principal by principal.

And in my day, it was all fair fights. Almost all one on one. Never any weapons. Its not that way now.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by oldschoolChevy

But the thread clearly says good or great public schools vs private schools. But yet people in here continue to throw out the worst examples at best or just out right make up stuff at worst. I don't think anyone on here is debating private schools as a whole public schools as a whole, of course private schools as a whole would be better. But all schools aren't created the same and there are good public schools here, and this thread was initially about those areas with good zoned schools

People have different opinions of what constitutes "good zoned schools." I think everyone would agree on Walton and North Gwinnett and their feeder schools. But beyond that, opinions differ.

[fieldm]

All i know is if i paid 20k annually for my kids school and they end up working at Waffle House I would be pissed

[Clayton white guy]

As far as "good zoned schools" I really feel that most would agree that many schools even in the Atlanta City system especially many elementary schools (Warren T. Jackson, Sarah Smith, Morris Brandon, and others on the north side, Mary Lin Springdale Park, and Morningside on the east/northeast side, even places like West Manor and maybe even Cascade on the southwest side and I may even throw in Grady High and Inman Middle School on the northeast side and the IB programs at Sutton Middle and North Atlanta High) would all be considered "good zoned schools" by many and perhaps even "most" people. That said, I was not trying to initiate a private v/s public war, I was merely curious about the motivation of spending $18,000 to $20,000 a year to send your children to school when the public (already paid for with your hefty in many jurisdictions tax bill) when by most metrics you were already zoned to some of the finest schools in Metro Atlanta (if not the State of Georgia) I (along with everybody else) gets the fact that not all public schools are not equal even within the same districts. My question was about people with access to stellar schools. I saw statistics years ago (I have no idea if these still hold true) where people in Fayette County (one of the top school districts in the state) also has a very high rate of private school use. The same article also mentioned similar trends in Dunwoody. Many years ago, at the beginning of my teaching career, I taught half a year at Atlanta's Sutton Middle School before being transferred to Brown Middle and later the old Coan Middle also within Atlanta. I felt like Sutton was a fine school, but I was told by long time teachers that only about half of the students within Sutton's Buckhead-centric attendance zone "made it there" instead of attending one of the many "Buckhead Privates". I was told at the time that matriculation on the North Atlanta was only about 30%, while the local elementaries held on to 2/3 of their in zone students. If those stats were true, that would mean the around 25%, a full quarter, of children zoned to some of Atlanta's top rated schools in the late 1990's never entered their doors! Thinking on this for almost two decades, I was just really dying of curiosity. I am sorry to any posters that felt "ganged up on" by my fellow public school advocates. I was truly in want of different perspectives, not trying to disrespect other people's choices or how they freely choose to spend their hard earned money. Hope all is well with everyone in City-Data land ;0)

[fzx]

CWG, your above post exactly pointed out the problem. Although Sutton is fine, it will be stretched to be called a good school. According to Great school ratings, it is 6/7 school, meaning 1/3 of GA middle schools are better than it. IF so, it is more like a B/C/OK school but not an A/good school.


If your context is in APS and close proximity of suburb (Sandy spring and Dunwoody), the results will be the same. There will be some variation/declining in ratings in middle & high schools. Parents need to consider consistency when applying for schools because they do not want their kids switch schools constantly.