? About Public and Private Schools in Greenville (new to Greenville)

[greenvillebuckeye]

Originally Posted by furmanpals

I find that 1/3 number hard to believe. We have about 68,000 students in public schools. That would mean we have about 22,600 in private schools. Can that be correct?

By the way, the public schools in Greenville County are just fine. My son graduated from Wade Hampton High School and the Fine Arts Center as the Valedictorian. He recently graduated from Furman University with a 3.895 GPA. I would say the public school system served him well.

believe or not that stat may be correct. the most recent census est. says that 25% of greenville county's population is under 18 years of age or less. that would mean that there are roughly 110,000 people under the age of 18 in the county. so those stats would work out to be about right.


as i've said before parents quit relying on schools to raise your child. if you want them to get a good education then they will. you can send your child to carolina high school (arguably one of the worst schools in the county) and if you care enough they can still go to schools like clemson, furman, etc...

[kkirchner]

anderson 1 schools are very good.

[Art123]

Originally Posted by furmanpals

I find that 1/3 number hard to believe. We have about 68,000 students in public schools. That would mean we have about 22,600 in private schools. Can that be correct?

By the way, the public schools in Greenville County are just fine. My son graduated from Wade Hampton High School and the Fine Arts Center as the Valedictorian. He recently graduated from Furman University with a 3.895 GPA. I would say the public school system served him well.

The stat I linked to only is within the city limits. According to city-data, about 10-11% of the county kids are in private schools.

I look at school systems the way I look at Congress in DC. Everyone says and thinks that Congress sucks, yet they love their own Congresspeople and keep praising and reelecting them. No one wants to admit that the schools their kids go to aren't very good, yet empirically the school systems here, in general, are not that good. While many individual students can and do thrive in the Greenville system, that doesn't necessarily mean the schools as a whole are all that great. And no school can make up for bad parenting, bad home life/etc. And good parenting combined with a good kid can overcome mediocrity in the system as well.

Congrats to your son, btw.

[Art123]

Originally Posted by greenvillebuckeye

a full 2/3 go to public school. so whats your point?

The point is that despite the fact that these parents have already paid for public schools (through their taxes), they are paying a good chunk of change for their kid to go to a private school, at least within the city of Greenville. People don't generally pay extra for something when they can get the same product for free (or at least already paid for). So, at least in the minds of the parents in Augusta Road, Parkins Mill, etc., the public schools aren't good enough for their children.