Seattle~ why so many going to private schools? (Bellevue, Issaquah: rent, neighborhoods)

[icecoldlemonade]

Sorry for the maybe naive question.

We were doing city research for a move to Seattle in a few years. Most of our friends who live in Seattle do not have children so they haven't been able to give us much information on an interesting schooling phenomenon we observed. Why do so many people in Seattle send their kids to private schools?

According to city data, for example, 93.5% of Queen Anne residents send their kids to private school.
86.5% of Ballard residents and 76.6% of those in Laurelhurst do the same. If you pop into any of the neighborhood specific data charts, you'll see that the majority of Seattle residents are private schooling.

Having grown up in So. California, my experience was that non-religious middle and upper middle class people only do private school if the public schools are located in a terrible, dangerous neighborhood that have test scores suffering due to the lower income students (who may be ESL). But most of these Seattle neighborhoods are tagged as middle and upper-middle class areas with higher income and educated residents. While the schools aren't lauded like the ones in Bellevue, most of them rank pretty highly on Great Schools (lots of 8s and 9s). And having casually visited a few of these neighborhoods, I thought they seemed like very safe, even cute, family-friendly urban areas!

So is there something that we're missing about Seattle's urban schools?

Our kid is only a baby so we have a few years to feel things out and we'll definitely rent for a while. Still, we would love to live in urban Seattle for the walkability. Maybe we'll end up staying with Bellevue, Issaquah and Snoq for the great public schools but living in a super expensive suburban neighborhood is not appealing right now.

[Hemlock140]

There are some good public schools in those parts of Seattle, but most private schools are better yet. These are well educated people that can afford the best for their kids. The biggest problem with the Seattle schools is the district administration which has had one scandal after another in the last 20 years,
which may also turn people off. Right now, they are having controversy over boundaries again. Some students may live close to a school yet have to go to one over 2 miles away.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Scho...224972032.html

[sean98125]

Take a look at the conversations at Seattle Schools Community Forum

The school district doesn't seem to know what their "long range" plan is from year to year. Parents with kids in APP or Spectrum or alternative schools aren't quite sure one year to the next where their kids will be going to school. The district spends millions of dollars to mothball a school only to spend millions two years later to open it up. They can't seem to manage their capacity, with some schools bursting at the seams and others with plenty of space. There is no equity between the neighborhood schools, with some getting ample resources and others not.

Private schools don't have the management problems or equity problems that the public schools in Seattle have at the moment. We're paying for our daughter to go to a small Catholic K-8 school even though we aren't Catholic and the program and community are perfect for what she needs. The local neighborhood school that our daughter would go to if she didn't win the lottery for one of the alternative schools is okay for the population it serves but not for advanced learners.

[Ira500]

Can you post a link to that data? 93% of Queen Anne residents sending their kids to private schools seems awfully high.

[tobester]

I agree with Ira - all those numbers seem very high! I would think 15 to 20 percent might be more reasonable (still probably high compared to other areas)

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Can you post a link to that data? 93% of Queen Anne residents sending their kids to private schools seems awfully high.

That was my thought. There can't possibly be enough private schools for 11 out of every 12 children to be going to one.

[flyingsaucermom]

I met a woman who just moved here (Issaquah) from Fremont. She has an exceptionally bright 4th grader who was doing either spectrum or APP or whatever the program is that serves the highest performing students. She was tired of not knowing year-to-year where her student was going to be placed and she also mentioned something about how the age and need to remodel many of the schools in the NE Seattle is causing issues too (which I can attest to, since we were briefly at Wedgwood Elementary a few years back). She seems to be settling in (the mom!), but you can tell she's missing the vibe of Seattle (as do I). She mentioned the preoccupation with owning certain vehicles here. On the other hand she love our (much) newer facilities that accommodate the needs of 21st century students.

Personally, I'm wondering if she couldn't find an alternative. We know of a family in Queen Ann that use the public school. Although they also admit that most of their neighbors send their kids to private school, they really enjoy the school that I think it's even a magnet school for sciences and technology. It's just that my new neighbor's kid is in the youth orchestra and has to cross the bridge at least once a week. That routine would get old very, very quickly in this household.

That's great you are asking questions and doing research while your little one is still so young!

[beautifulseattlehomes]

While I do think that those numbers might be a bit high, I am aware that at least as of a few years ago, Seattle had the highest private school attendance in the country...I believe the number I read was 1 in 9 students in the city of Seattle attend private school. My daughter is one of them. I will not put her in public school here.

I think the answer is easy. It just isn't that good of a public school school system compared to schools in other parts of the country. In all fairness to Seattle, big city school systems are difficult to manage and many of the nations urban school districts suffer because of the sheer enormity of the task. That being said, my feeling is that Seattle doesn't have the same issues that Chicago, NYC, Miami, LA, have and should be able to do a better job of it. I think the system is woefully mismanaged and can't seem to set a tone for itself. Every year things change and not for the better. They are now suffering from record overcrowding as the population of the city grows.

[kaday]

I would say in Queen Anne the majority of families send their kids to public elementary and then make other options for middle and high school. I do think lately more are taking a look at public past elementary school. I seriously doubt 93% send their kids to private. At least at Coe and Hay the schools are so full they are busting at the seams. Both are over well over capacity.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by Ira500

Can you post a link to that data? 93% of Queen Anne residents sending their kids to private schools seems awfully high.

I honestly had no idea that CD even broke down info for city neighborhoods, but sure enough it does:http://www.city-data.com/neighborhoo...eattle-WA.html

It's under "Education in this Neighborhood". I don't know the source of CD 's information. Wow!