Raising kids "in the city" - is it possible?? (Chicago: school district, high income)

[skyeINIL]

Originally Posted by cdc3217

Followers of Lyndon LaRouche, a very controversial, radical political thinker that's had a underground following in Chicago since at least the mid 70's. He's kind of a radical libertarian wrapped in conspiracy theories. But I'm no expert.

So his followers are very wary of political machines, which makes them quite discontent in Chicago as you can imagine.

There's a long entry on Wikipedia.

For the purposes of my post, I was just surprised to see they still existed, and they had really bizarre posters they were waving at drivers that day, about how global warming is a myth or somehow related to abortion... I don't really recall anymore.

Are they the same ones that say that 9/11 was an "inside job"?

And, wait they were on the south side! It's a wonder they are still alive!

[cdc3217]

Originally Posted by skye1974

Are they the same ones that say that 9/11 was an "inside job"?

I think so.
Somehow also, The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is a Luddite Hoax as well.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by skye1974

Are they the same ones that say that 9/11 was an "inside job"?

And, wait they were on the south side! It's a wonder they are still alive!

Too funny.

I've been down to the South Side myself a few hundred times, and feel lucky to have made it back out. A guy "mean mugged" me down there once and I almost cried. Better to stay in Uptown or Rogers Park where it's safe.

[Manigault]

I guess I'm really lucky. I've lived on the south side for 30 years.

[cdc3217]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Too funny.

I've been down to the South Side myself a few hundred times, and feel lucky to have made it back out. A guy "mean mugged" me down there once and I almost cried. Better to stay in Uptown or Rogers Park where it's safe.

I don't think anyone is going to mug a LaRouchie. Aliens may come abduct you in retaliation.

[skyeINIL]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Too funny.

I've been down to the South Side myself a few hundred times, and feel lucky to have made it back out. A guy "mean mugged" me down there once and I almost cried. Better to stay in Uptown or Rogers Park where it's safe.

I wish there was a laughing smilie that could illustrate spewing water everywhere.

[misspetite]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Too funny.

I've been down to the South Side myself a few hundred times, and feel lucky to have made it back out. A guy "mean mugged" me down there once and I almost cried. Better to stay in Uptown or Rogers Park where it's safe.

Then you realized he wasn't staring you down because he wanted you out of the neighborhood, he thought you went to high school with him!

[mr aztec]

Hello all! I will attempt to bring some life back to this thread with my story.

My wife and are are DINKS who bought a condo in Lakeview at the height of the market, Summer '06. And of course we went in with not a dime down. Obviously, our budget is stretched pretty thin. Now for the fantastic news--we are having a baby! Yippeee!

So of course I am freaking out and doing an insane amount of research (research in the sense I am reading every thread about raising kids in the city). Our first hurdle is daycare. I say hurdle because these threads make it sound like daycare in Chicago is near impossible and hardly inexpensive. Now we are enlightened enough to know that we could not afford $1,200+.

[mr aztec]

WHoops, will try to finish.... (see last post for Part I)

OK so we are looking at maybe some kind of single mom home daycare type thing and hope it comes in at $800 or less. From what I see on Craig's list, that is not unreasonable.

But since this post is about schools, lets get to the meat of my question--

When I read about the cost of private school, can any of you throw out ballpark figures? If we want to plan for private school, I think its best we start early. But in order to do that, I need some idea. We are not talking 15k a year?

Thanks for all your well thought out responses and look forward for future conversations about this great city.

[oldhousegirl]

20-25K for some privates Mr. Aztec plus the dreaded fundraising, aka building endowment fund.

For what it's worth, I grew up on the northside, went to the "top" public elementary school in the city at the time, and followed up at the "top" public H.S. with a brief stint at an expensive private school. This was in the seventies and eighties. Still shake my head at the quality or lack there of in the education that I received going to CPS.

I feel for you. CPS is systemically flawed. CPS is the main reason I moved from the city to the suburbs, Flossmoor to be exact so I could quit paying private school tuition for my child. I was so pissed that my son could not walk the two blocks to go to the cute little neighborhood school in Chicago that looked so nice on the outside, but had failing test scores and other problems on the inside.

I don't know what the answer is. But until Chicago can get its act together educationally, living there is not an option for so many people. My family members still in Chicago would rather chop off an arm than send their mildly LD daughter to ANY CPS school with an IEP.

I live in Ga. now which is another story. I must stop my rant, thanks for reading.