Catholic schools seem to be very expensive - any former NYers out there?

[hey_guy]

Don't forget you're moving to the protestant bible belt Catholic schools at a high level aren't part of the history here and have a reputation as being a container for the elite but also heavily subsidizing the hispanic community

I'm neither a parent nor a NYr nor a catholic but I do have a friend who pulled her kids from Thomas Moore due to cost and elitist environment and seems to satisfied overall with public school but of course its some different struggles (that's life)

*shrug* you're gonna pay for public school regardless but hey its your money!!

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by aphorista

I don't know if this is relevant to you but it seems that the private schools here do not offer bus transportation. When I grew up in Ct and NY (many years ago) , I went to Catholic schools and the transportation was provided by the county. I don't know if that is still done but wanted to mention it to you.

I see that several Connecticut towns still use public money to bus kids to parochial schools. I doubt very much that Wake County would do that, as Catholics are only an 11% minority of the population. However, there are state scholarships for kids to attend faith-based schools, per the St Catherine of Siena website: "There are also School Opportunity Scholarships sponsored by the state of North Carolina that provide $4200/yr in tuition assistance for families who qualify."

[twingles]

Originally Posted by aphorista

I don't know if this is relevant to you but it seems that the private schools here do not offer bus transportation. When I grew up in Ct and NY (many years ago) , I went to Catholic schools and the transportation was provided by the county. I don't know if that is still done but wanted to mention it to you.

Good point.

[rangerwolf]

Around here, there are many more private protestant Christian schools than Catholic schools. That just comes with there not being as many Catholics here...

The public schools are great, but may not provide the "classic style" education that a Catholic or Christian school would. I grew up here and went to Cary High and knew some folks that went to Cary Christian and Wake Christian and their education and classroom styles seemed a little more classical and old fashioned. Many of them would actually say that was a good thing because of those I knew, all of them went to NC State, Duke, or UNC. Whether that was their family structure encouraging education or the school itself, who knows, but they all seemed to enjoy the small classes and everything about small christian private school.

[JONOV]

There are far fewer Catholics here, and there just isn't the network or Diocesan support that the schools have in places like Chicago or NYC or Buffalo. Growing up in Chicagoland there were something like 5 High School Athletic Conferences comprised of exclusively Catholic High Schools...Nothing like that here.

[rangerwolf]

This was mentioned in the other active thread concerning Catholic schools, there are only 3 Catholic high schools in all of North Carolina.

[Francois]

Originally Posted by Chapelle

I see. I guess what we will have to do is once we go down there, mark the pro's and con's of moving and staying. if there are far more pro's to moving to NC, then it will be a go, just will have to figure the tuition thing out - and see what the public schools have to offer. From what I understand (only from what I have heard) is that it is hard to beat some of the NY school districts.

Mod Edit There isn't nearly the Catholic population nor "infrastructure" in place here as in the NE, which may be why Cath schools are more expensive?

[Chapelle]

thank you all for your thoughts. Mod Edit