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Secondly, most people CHOOSE to send their kids to public schools (of course, there are some exceptions). As you have said before (in other posts and in other threads), you can afford private school, but for a variety of reasons, you like public schools. That is fine, but please do not tell me that is not a CHOICE for you to do so. A lot of other people are in your situation. I know a lot of people who live in million dollar homes who also choose public school. Good for them, but the point is that where you educate your children is a CHOICE. For the relatively small number of people who cannot afford that choice, a full voucher system would solve that problem.
According to the latest Census figures I could find Income - State Median Income the 2006 median income for 4-person Georgia families was 67,000 (rounded up). Private school tuition runs somewhere around $12,000 per year per child and up, I think. How can the number of people who cannot afford the "choice" of private school for their kids be "relatively small"? On the contrary, the number of people who can afford private school is relatively small. Private school for the kids is not a financially viable choice for most families, any more than vacationing abroad, living in a deluxe home, regularly dining in fine restaurants, etc.
According to the latest Census figures I could find Income - State Median Income the 2006 median income for 4-person Georgia families was 67,000 (rounded up). Private school tuition runs somewhere around $12,000 per year per child and up, I think. How can the number of people who cannot afford the "choice" of private school for their kids be "relatively small"? On the contrary, the number of people who can afford private school is relatively small. Private school for the kids is not a financially viable choice for most families, any more than vacationing abroad, living in a deluxe home, regularly dining in fine restaurants, etc.
First, the average price of private school is not $12,000 per year. That is only for the most expensive private schools. There are plenty of private schools in the Atlanta area that run around $6,500 or so per year. Also, those tuition numbers do not include any financial aid provided by the private schools... so in reality, the cost is actually much less than those quoted. Lastly, nobody said that private schools are not a sacrifice.
On a separate note, the financial burden placed on families (even the ones who can truly afford it) is one of the reasons that schools vouchers are such a good thing.
Well I personally wish there was school choice that is for sure!
If I am willing to wait in line and camp out all night if I needed to get my kids in the school that I think is the best,and drive my kids everyday to and from school, and pay my taxes.
I should be able to pick whatever Public school in my county that I want IMHO.. It would then force the poor preforming schools to get on par, to receive tax $ etc..
Not all schools in a county are equal by any means.
We can not and could not afford to pay for private education. I was forced to send my kids to the public school based on my address. It was a horrible school on so many levels, and we had had enough!
We made the decision we had to sell.. and get out and move to a better school district.
By the grace of god we sold our house ,and moved to what we thought was a wonderful district and school.
We figured it would be easier to figure out how to pay for a higher mortgage then fund 3 kids private education. However, had we had "school choice" we wouldn't have felt forced to sell our home!
In many other countries the money follows the student. Parents can chose to go wherever they want and allocate the money to the particular school of their choice. The countries that follow this system generally perform much better than the U.S. in testing. The US traditionally is significantly behind other industrialized nations in several academic areas. Abroad the US is only known for its colleges and more precisely its graduate schools, where competition is alive and well. It makes sense that if the money follows the students, schools will do everything they can to compete and therefore perform better. Parents would not need vouchers or even desire them if they were entirely happy with their public school system.
In many other countries the money follows the student. Parents can chose to go wherever they want and allocate the money to the particular school of their choice. The countries that follow this system generally perform much better than the U.S. in testing. The US traditionally is significantly behind other industrialized nations in several academic areas. Abroad the US is only known for its colleges and more precisely its graduate schools, where competition is alive and well. It makes sense that if the money follows the students, schools will do everything they can to compete and therefore perform better. Parents would not need vouchers or even desire them if they were entirely happy with their public school system.
I'm aware of other countries in which there is school choice at the public high school level. Not so much elementary, I think. Also, I don't think the choice includes private schools, just public schools. This practice is akin to US charter schools. ellar, are you aware of other nations in which the tax money follows the student to PRIVATE schools?
I'm not saying the US system is doing well, overall. Certainly there is a need for improvement and I agree with ellar that while US graduate schools are highly regarded abroad, our high schools are not. However, a big challenge we set ourselves is educating EVERY child to college entrance level. I think some of those better-scoring countries don't attempt this.
I believe countries like the Netherlands and Belgium have school choice on all levels. Here is an article I found on those countries' education systems http://www.skillscommission.org/pdf/commissioned_papers/High%20Performance%20and%20Success.pdf (broken link). I can't vouch for everything in this article because I'm not an expert on those countries, but it seems to be good information. I also think John Stossel's analysis and opinions on this subject are interesting: ABC News: John Stossel's 'Stupid in America'
The article on the Netherlands is interesting, ellar. It says All schools are totally financed by the Ministry, regardless of whether they are private or publicly run. (page 3, italics original). So it seems that in some ways the Dutch have tremendous liberty to start up private schools with much freedom of choice in methods and philosophy. However, private funding of schools is flatly not allowed. I suspect that this restriction would be unappealing to some of us.
Notice also that the Netherlands has four different types of high schools, of which only two offer a college preparatory curriculum. The article says about 35% of Dutch elementary school graduates go to the college-prep types of high school (that's both kinds, combined). Therefore I suspect that academic comparisons of Dutch versus US students are likely comparing the top (in academic accomplishment) 35% of Dutch students with a full cross-section of US students.
I'm curious to which private schools kagmypts is referring to that are $6k per year. All Kindergarten rates I have seen hover around $12k per year. Some of the Montessori programs are $9k, but aftercare would tack on an additional $2-$3k.
All of the Catholic parochial schools run from $5,500 up to $7,100 (it depends on which school). Most of the schools hover right around $6,000. This does not include any type of extended day, and I have no idea what the cost for that is (we do not need it so it was never part of our decision). Here is a link... Office of Catholic Schools | Archdiocese of Atlanta
We priced out a few other (smaller) Christian elementary schools and found the pricing to be the same. In general we found the religiously affliated schools to be far cheaper than their other private school counterparts. Of course, you will not be able to touch Pace, Lovett, etc. for this price (unless you qualify for financial aid). For a number of reasons, aside from cost, those types of schools were not for us. There are a lot of private school options out there across a wide spectrum of price points... it just depends on what you looking for in a school. Good luck!
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