nervous for private school admission letters? (Atlanta: voucher, live in, vs.)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

Those are great questions, cmtiger, and I hope you get some interesting responses. I think that the families who use those schools mostly are rich, compared with the vast majority of Americans.

kagmypts alluded to having very different views from me regarding public/private education. I appreciate her open-mindedness in nonetheless being willing to agree with me on a specific topic. I'd also like to say that I have no objection at all to the rich spending their money however they see fit, including on private education for their children. That's certainly their good right.

I think public education is vital to the American ideal of equal opportunity for all, so I get angry with people who sneer at "government schools", claiming public education is inherently bad, and at the state politicians who seem to be out to kill off public education by underfunding and replacing it with vouchers. Poor families won't be able to send their child to the likes of Westminster and Pace with a voucher of around $5K. It would just be a subsidy for well-to-do private school families. I don't blame them for wanting the subsidy, and believing they deserve it, but I'm offended by the pretence that this would benefit the rest of the population. (In saying this, I'm not intending to accuse anyone here of this claim).

Although everyone is entitled to their opinion, I do also roll my eyes at the apparent beliefs of some private schooling families that a public education is inherently academically second-class. Both my and my husband's families are full of academic high achievers who attended ordinary public K-12 schools and public universities. A nephew, for example, about to graduate from a Canadian provincial university, will be entering grad school at Harvard on scholarship this fall. When people want private school for their child because they want the special, distinctive experiences it offers, or feel it will meet their child's particular needs better, I can understand that. But when they seem to believe, as it sometimes appears to me, that a normal child won't have a decent chance at success in life unless they are privately educated, well, that's just not true.

(see highlighted above)

Lady Rain...I couldn't have said it better myself (the underlined part in particular).

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by lastminutemom

Grandparents' money and a lot of it flows into private schools. Having studied, a few years ago, data about private school attendance, you can see a large number of bills actually being mailed out of state.


At schools like W, P, and L I think there are some scholarship families and many very high double income families (think two MDs). There are also many, many old Atlanta money families. I also know many people in the financial industry who are struggling to figure out what to do about next year -- because their huge bonuses are gone and may not come back.

The college thing is tricky. There is a body of research out there that shows that only the kids in the top say third of a class benefit from being at either a high achievers magnet type program or in an academically competitive private school. I think, early on, there are many parents who think going to a certain school guarantees/eases the way into certain private colleges, when the reality is that private school may actually make it harder (more competition from their own school) to get into certain colleges. Also, whether we like it or not, there is probably more grade inflation in public school. I have a family friend whose child has been at Woodward for 13 years (graduating this year) and he won't be earning the HOPE. So, now not only will he probably not get in anywhere decent in state, they would have to pay for it, even if he does.

There is a private school counselor here who began a few years ago counseling her clients to work backwards - if you can afford private college, then you can do private high school if you can afford it, if you can afford private high school, then do private middle school , etc etc. This was a big switch for her as she had long been a private k-12 advocate until her first batch of clients were graduating high school only to find that the families couldn't afford all the options the student had.

I was waiting for lastminute to drop her knowledge.

Good, informative post.

[CMMom]

Well, for our family, we do not take expensive ski vacations/European vacations/Disney World. None of the above. A vacation for us is a long weekend staying at the in-laws' house in Charleston. My husband and I usually take a long weekend trip for our anniversary, but won't even be doing that this year b/c of needing to pay two private school tuitions. We have gotten rid of all the "optional" services such as yard service, Pilates (mine), massages (mine), nail salons (mine). All that stuff is gone for the near future. We are living on less b/c that is how important the private school education at the school we've chosen is for us. I understand public school proponents' point of view, but please don't slam me for my point of view either.

BTW, we are not "old money" and we don't have any financial support from grandparents either (they are all in significant financial distress as are many people).

Re: college, we started 529 Plans as soon as we got our children's social security numbers. They've taken a significant hit this past year, but we are hoping for them to rebound; we've 13 years until our oldest will be 18.

BTW, DH and I both have graduate-level degrees (Ph.D. and J.D.). Don't assume that if you have highly educated parents, they are automatically "rich." We are struggling just like everyone else. We have just chosen to make private school tuition a priority for us over other things.

[yankeegirl73]

I went to both private and public schools. Both systems have their pluses and minuses and neither is inherently superior to another. As long as the school is decent, your child will ultimately have substantially similar achievements following their education in either type of school. However, if people couldn't decide to attend private schools (even really expensive ones) it would mean that public school would be mandatory, which is extreme, don't you think? A family's decision to educate their child in one way is not a judgment on those who make a different decision. It's just their decision.

And where is this supposed sneering at government schools on this board? If you're talking about Boortz, he's not here.

[buckheadmommy]

Originally Posted by buckheadmommy

I have a friend that "says" his child was accepted at AIS for Kindergarten/pre-first but "says" he is not even considering sending there. He said his wife applied just to see if their son could get in. From this message board, it seems like AIS is very hard to get into and this child does not speak a second language and is not an expat so I am questioning whether he is being honest and if his child really got in. If anyone here got accepted, what is sent in the acceptance letter? Is it a thick or thin envelop? Just curious to see whether it is the same as he described. Not sure why he would not tell the truth but the whole thing seems fishy unless it was much easier to get in this year because of the economy.

He also says his son was accepted at Paidella (sp?) but is not sending there either and is choosing to hold their son back since he has a feb birthday and thinks he will not be as big as the other boys.

Is this weird or is it just me?

Does anyone whose child was accepted to AIS have a response to the post quoted above? I think I unintentionally started a private/public school debate

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by yankeegirl73

I went to both private and public schools. Both systems have their pluses and minuses and neither is inherently superior to another. As long as the school is decent, your child will ultimately have substantially similar achievements following their education in either type of school. However, if people couldn't decide to attend private schools (even really expensive ones) it would mean that public school would be mandatory, which is extreme, don't you think? A family's decision to educate their child in one way is not a judgment on those who make a different decision. It's just their decision.

And where is this supposed sneering at government schools on this board? If you're talking about Boortz, he's not here.

All over. Here's one: //www.city-data.com/forum/5027467-post17.html

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by yankeegirl73

I went to both private and public schools. Both systems have their pluses and minuses and neither is inherently superior to another. As long as the school is decent, your child will ultimately have substantially similar achievements following their education in either type of school. However, if people couldn't decide to attend private schools (even really expensive ones) it would mean that public school would be mandatory, which is extreme, don't you think? A family's decision to educate their child in one way is not a judgment on those who make a different decision. It's just their decision.

And where is this supposed sneering at government schools on this board? If you're talking about Boortz, he's not here.

No one is saying private schools shouldn't exist...

[yankeegirl73]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

All over. Here's one: //www.city-data.com/forum/5027467-post17.html

Oh come on. That post is more than 6 months old and from a totally unrelated string. No one in this discussion was attacking public school, yet you say how tired you are of seeing public school attacked. Give me a break.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by yankeegirl73

Oh come on. That post is more than 6 months old and from a totally unrelated string. No one in this discussion was attacking public school, yet you say how tired you are of seeing public school attacked. Give me a break.

Um...lol......


Rainy is correct in what she is saying. She's not going to sit here and then find/list every single incident of public school bashing on the Atlanta forum. Give her a break.

You have fingers and a mouse...knock yourself out, miss.

Wow.

[CMMom]

Originally Posted by buckheadmommy

Does anyone whose child was accepted to AIS have a response to the post quoted above? I think I unintentionally started a private/public school debate

I don't know about AIS, but our "acceptance" letter was a thin one. They send beaucoups of info after you pay your deposit (probably to avoid killing trees for people who may not attend).