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Does anyone know of any good public elementary and middle/high schools in Dorado, Toa Baja, Vega Alta or Vaga Baja areas? If you have any experience with a particular school, kindly let me know. Thank you.
I would love to give you personal advise and details with those districts but Im afraid my posts would be censored or erased and this topic CLOSED for no reason.
my advise to you is if you can take your kids to a private school, DO IT! the public school system in P.R. is pretty bad.
I would love to give you personal advise and details with those districts but Im afraid my posts would be censored or erased and this topic CLOSED for no reason.
my advise to you is if you can take your kids to a private school, DO IT! the public school system in P.R. is pretty bad.
Mike
I second this, if you want your children to have the best education possible in Puerto Rico then I strongly urge you to consider a private school.
I have friends who have attended private schools and others who attended public schools and there is a clear difference in terms of education quality. For instance my friends who attended private schools tend to speak much, much, much better English.
Without the emphasis on learning English, my friend is moving to PR and wants her 3 children to learn Spanish. They are already fluent in English. I thought I had read a while back about someone on this forum who had shared of her child's successful experience in the public school system, I believe in the Fajardo area. So, I was curious if there were other more recent experiences.
Without the emphasis on learning English, my friend is moving to PR and wants her 3 children to learn Spanish. They are already fluent in English. I thought I had read a while back about someone on this forum who had shared of her child's successful experience in the public school system, I believe in the Fajardo area. So, I was curious if there were other more recent experiences.
there are better ways for her children to learn Spanish than to throw them in a bad public school system in P.R. from a system in states that they have known all their lives that is totally different. They are going to feel lost and out of place, outcast, and most of the time confused of how the system is run in the island and the language barrier will be very rough on them since ALL of the classes are in Spanish except English class which is a joke and they don't need.........the Public school system in P.R. don't have a very good bilingual programs in the public schools for kids coming from the states and don't know Spanish.
If she has to move there and has NO CHOICE then take them to the public school system and cross her fingers and take her chances but she has to be on top of things and the school on a daily basis but if she can put them in private schools with a good bilingual program. You know the ones Americans on the island on business or military send their kids to.
Personally, my son is in 9th grade here in the states and I would never move to P.R. unless I can take him to a private school in the island . I would be doing him a great disservice emotionally and educationally and I would lose him in that system. He wouldn't be learning much but bad habits in the public system.
I don't know all the details, financial sistuation and circumstances of your friend but good luck to her, she will be for a rude awakening when she gets there and deal with reality.
Its very sad but education in Puerto Rico, as its become in the United States, is a class thing. For example, most parents who want to "really educate" their kids in New York would only send them to a private school, that is, unless the school is in a high income area where public education is just as good as private school, and in some places, better.
There is really no middle ground in Puerto Rico. Schools are either good or bad, with one or two in between , but trying to find them is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.
It's not that island teachers are bad, I went to public school all my life in Puerto Rico, its that schools have become copies of U.S. ghetto schools. Public schools in Puerto Rico have become places to retain kids for the whole day giving their parents a break, Education? What's that!
However not all private schools are good either. Many parents think that because the curriculum is in English their kids will learn better. If that were the case why aren't kids learning better in the United States whose ranking in the world has dropped from between 20 to 25% among industrialized nations. They all teach in English, not Spanish!
The politicians and business people have their kids in private schools , like San Ignacio, Madre Salvatore, or public schools associated with the University of Puerto Rico or other institutes of higher learning. Their curriculums are balanced and kids come out ready for any college, even Ivy Leagues. However the real issue whether kids will learn or not is THE HOME and THE FRIENDS THEY KEEP.
wait a minute Clip, there are a lot of good public school systems in the U.S., depends of the states and counties and here in many states they have Charter Schools and school vouchers as options for low income parents to take their kids out of a bad public school system and put them in good schools including private schools with those vouchers. Milwaukee is a great example of school vouchers were low income kids (mostly minorities)have the choice of getting out of bad inner city public school system and had the opportunity to go to good private schools like St. Anthony Catholic High School, that's 1 example of many......try that in Puerto Rico and the politicians will castrate and destroy anybody who wants to reform that system. Puerto Rico's public school system is sooooo politicized and very centralized by the local corrupt political parties and cronies from the Teacher's Union that won't allow Charter Schools and School Vouchers or any real reform for low income Puerto Ricans to take out their kids from a failed system to a private one. We all know why they do this, they don't want to lose control of all the federal and public funds in public education.
Don't mix all public schools in the U.S. into one........here in the states the public school system is control by the locals and counties, you have your good ones and bad ones......not like Puerto Rico.....Puerto Rico they run it like a socialist marxist country, a centralized huge government bureaucracy which is corrupt and badly run by political cronies of the party in power.
You are right, not all private schools in Puerto Rico are good, some are better than others but overall private schools in P.R. are better than the public schools because they have ACCOUNTABILITY and its a lot easier to fire bad teachers and bad principals and bad administrators than in Public Schools. In Private schools they know in a free market they are competing with other private schools and public schools for business and they have to give good service or they won't be in business for too long......in the public schools the mentality is they don't care if they give poor service and poor administration since its all coming from federal and public funds they don't care since no one hardly gets fired in the public schools since its all political.Their mentality is the checks will keep on coming regardless how mediocre we are as an institution and since they have a MONOPOLY and they make the rules and will reject any real reforms so there is no accountability, just like most government agencies in the island.
Just compare a good public high school in a good district in the states to any public high school in Puerto Rico. Its night and day......here the public high schools have a real sport programs from football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, track and field gymnastics, wrestling, swimming (high schools here have olympic size swimming pools), arts, music, debate clubs and all sorts of programs and that's just High School. Just the high schools buildings themselves look like junior colleges and are well built and maintained.
now go in to any public high school in any downtown city in Puerto Rico and compare, from the outside and inside looks something like a banana republic or a some Turkey Penitentiary with all the barb wires and security fences and irons around the schools and its poorly maintained ...............its a joke and is not for the lack of money, they get plenty of federal and public funds and Puerto Rico tax everybody to death.
you know you are sending your kids to a bad school when the school has barb wires and iron gates around the school and have to be on lock down during business hours.
so don't compare the public school system in the states overall to P.R.....not in the same league.
Agreed. I'm a product of the private school system in Puerto Rico. My parents literally saved me and my sister by ensuring we spent K-12 in private school. I would have never got to where I am today if they had thrown me in public school down there. It's not even in the same league. Public schools in PR are refugee camps. It is a hostile, unpredictable environment, there is no expectation of being competitive towards college, let alone emigrating to the States and attending mainland colleges successfully.
To be clear, I would rate the quality of my education in PR private school to a well funded suburban public school in the states. One that isn't gold plated college-tuition sized US private school, but it was good enough and designed to allow me to compete at places like Georgia Tech and Purdue University, and graduate with honors.
Public schools in the states are local property tax driven, which is to say you can buy yourself a decent education, free from social strife and poverty-related distractions that detract from the ability to learn the stuff you need to go to college and move on with your life. This is opposed to fighting the good fight everyday just to learn 2+2=4. In PR, you don't have that ability to stratify public schools for they are all under the same centralized ghetto refugee camp political machinery.
Send your kids to private school down there. If you can't afford it, you can't afford to live and work in Puerto Rico and would be better off raising your family in the States. Seriously. Good luck.
She cannot afford private school education at the moment. So, she's looking for a good public school in the northern region, not San Juan. Would schools in wealthier areas be any better, like Dorado, Condado, parts of Guaynabo, etc? Or is it only those in the worst neighborhoods attend public schools? She'll have elementary and middle school aged children attending. Thank you again. Your honesty and insight are both very helpful.
wait a minute Clip, there are a lot of good public school systems in the U.S., depends of the states and counties and here in many states they have Charter Schools and school vouchers as options for low income parents to take their kids out of a bad public school system and put them in good schools including private schools with those vouchers. Milwaukee is a great example of school vouchers were low income kids (mostly minorities)have the choice of getting out of bad inner city public school system and had the opportunity to go to good private schools like St. Anthony Catholic High School, that's 1 example of many......try that in Puerto Rico and the politicians will castrate and destroy anybody who wants to reform that system. Puerto Rico's public school system is sooooo politicized and very centralized by the local corrupt political parties and cronies from the Teacher's Union that won't allow Charter Schools and School Vouchers or any real reform for low income Puerto Ricans to take out their kids from a failed system to a private one. We all know why they do this, they don't want to lose control of all the federal and public funds in public education.
Don't mix all public schools in the U.S. into one........here in the states the public school system is control by the locals and counties, you have your good ones and bad ones......not like Puerto Rico.....Puerto Rico they run it like a socialist marxist country, a centralized huge government bureaucracy which is corrupt and badly run by political cronies of the party in power.
You are right, not all private schools in Puerto Rico are good, some are better than others but overall private schools in P.R. are better than the public schools because they have ACCOUNTABILITY and its a lot easier to fire bad teachers and bad principals and bad administrators than in Public Schools. In Private schools they know in a free market they are competing with other private schools and public schools for business and they have to give good service or they won't be in business for too long......in the public schools the mentality is they don't care if they give poor service and poor administration since its all coming from federal and public funds they don't care since no one hardly gets fired in the public schools since its all political.Their mentality is the checks will keep on coming regardless how mediocre we are as an institution and since they have a MONOPOLY and they make the rules and will reject any real reforms so there is no accountability, just like most government agencies in the island.
Just compare a good public high school in a good district in the states to any public high school in Puerto Rico. Its night and day......here the public high schools have a real sport programs from football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, track and field gymnastics, wrestling, swimming (high schools here have olympic size swimming pools), arts, music, debate clubs and all sorts of programs and that's just High School. Just the high schools buildings themselves look like junior colleges and are well built and maintained.
now go in to any public high school in any downtown city in Puerto Rico and compare, from the outside and inside looks something like a banana republic or a some Turkey Penitentiary with all the barb wires and security fences and irons around the schools and its poorly maintained ...............its a joke and is not for the lack of money, they get plenty of federal and public funds and Puerto Rico tax everybody to death.
you know you are sending your kids to a bad school when the school has barb wires and iron gates around the school and have to be on lock down during business hours.
so don't compare the public school system in the states overall to P.R.....not in the same league.
Just let me put in my 2¢ before I'm accused of hijacking this thread. LOL To repeat what I said, "good public schools in the U.S. are dependent on the tax base of the community, the higher the tax base the better the schools". There might be one or two public schools that are pushed by the media thus having us believe that all is well, but world statistics on American education don't lie.
Public schools in Puerto Rico do not depend on the tax base of the community, thus in a way they are more democratic. However a lot of schools depend on Federal transfer funds that are highly controlled by a political class who siphones funds to other things.
Charter schools are a mixed bag, some are good, some aren't ( watch movie waiting for Superman, all parents with school age children should watch it). The best Charters have a lotto system, the mediocre ones are dime a dozen.
I don't want to discourage Boricua Rosa , but as most posters here have agreed, quality public education in Puerto Rico is difficult, but not impossible to get. However if you still insist, the best way to find if a school meets your standards is asking parents how they feel about so and so school. Ask the teachers where they send their children.
Bottom line: We all have different standards about education. Some people have standards that are similar or different from ours.
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