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What town(s) are you looking at? Many of the private schools listed are pre-schools. Most towns also have at least one religious school (mostly Catholic).
This may not be the case one hundred percent of the time, but it seems like more often than not, when I hear about people sending their children to private school, it's because the public schools are something to fear in one way or another--bad education, or dangerous environment. I don't think BC parents are as nervous about the public schools (I was one), so there may just not be as much drive to put the kids in private schools as one might otherwise expect from a relatively affluent area.
Especially since the money is often there and not all parents choose a private school, the report you posted seems to point to parents choosing public school not out of necessity but because the confidence public school is there.
That said, I did know a fair amount of children growing up who went to Catholic school, so I'm not sure how those numbers are panning out on the site you listed; but bottom line, many BC public schools rank very high and are safe, so maybe other BC parents felt the way I did, that it wasn't necessary to choose a private school.
Last edited by JerZ; 09-21-2007 at 02:42 PM..
Reason: mixed up public & private
In Bergen it is going to depend on the quality of the overall district. Most towns are thier own district. There are over 70 towns in Bergen County.
My kids go to private school. They got good finanacial aid at an independent school after the oldest was bullied out of Bergenfield public schools.
Your best bet for checking into quality that is a match for you is to look at the school report for teacher to student ratio, test scores, percent of students attending college, etc.
Tenafly is rated among the top high schools in the state. The Northern Valley districts, Ridgewood, Glen Rock/Allendale are also very good.
Public schools here can be crowded. Depends on the district. Again, look up the information for the area you are looking for.
Many of the schools on the link you posted appear to be preschool or private that only go through primary grades, such as some Montessori schools.
The school report that realtors subscribe to and share with potential customers will give you better statistical information on the individual districts. The quality varies widely.
Some of the bergen county schools do not seem packed at all. That is what I found to be strange since bergen is mostly families
What is it that you find strange about it? Again, many of the public schools are top-notch and there isn't such a push to put kids into private schools for that reason. And as others have stated, some of the schools in the link you posted referred to very young children, so it might not be representative of these children all throughout their school careers.
I'm just curious as to why you would think BC parents should want their children to go to private schools--do you live in BC now? Do your children go to a private school?
I find it strange that the schools are not that packed especially the high school in particular because Bergen has lots of people. I would expect each grade to have more people.
people will be choice the best school for their kids.but they depend on their ability for the paying.maybe the rich take their kids to private school,and the poor take their kids to other school!
I went to private grammer school b/c my parents had always gone to private school and wanted to send me to Catholic school.
I lived in one of the smaller, lower Bergen County towns and everyone knew everyone and the public school and catholic school kids were very divided. So once I was labeled as "a private school kid" I always wanted to continue on that route. I also was very into education and liked the block scheduling and extra subjects that private schools offer that the high school in my town didn't.
My private high school had about 160 kids in each grade, which was bigger than the class in my town, but a lot smaller than a regional high school. One of the appeals of paying for private school is supposed to be small class size and a good student to teacher ratio.
I am inquiring because I have just recently moved to BC River Edge form Greenwich CT. Personally I find the curriculum lacking in comparison to the Greenwich Public school system. So I am just feeling out the prospect of private school.
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