5 Reasons to enroll your child into public school

In yesterday’s post I promised I would give the other side of the coin to the debate, public or private school. If you missed yesterday’s blog, please take a moment and read it. But basically, I have experienced both worlds as a teacher and a parent, and see the positives and negatives of both choices. Since I focus on the positive, I want to give my 5 reasons to choose a public school. Maybe the private school’s can learn a little from them too.

1. It’s Free. That is the bottom line in many parent’s decision. The fact is ‘I can’ or ‘I can’t’ afford it. Through our tax system, our society supports and education system that offers learning to every child. We as a society, want an educated public. I will not be able to work very well past 60’s/70’s, so I want the younger generation working, helping support me in my golden years through work and taxes, instead of going into the criminal system. Do I like the public system? Of course, it has a very important place in our society.

2. Teachers as well as administrators are educated to specific standards. They must go through schooling, rigorous testing, continued professional development to not only gain their positions, but to keep their positions (up until tenure). Public school teachers are required to be abreast of the education systems’ standards, implementation of these standards, state adopted (approved) curriculum and testing of students.

3. Facilities are more condusive to a learning environment. This is an interesting point that I never thought about as a public school teacher. The facilities are required by law to accomodate ADA, updated safety features, and security. Now that doesn’t mean that private schools aren’t held up to fire safety codes, on the contrary, they are inspected and specific laws (room occupation etc) must be obeyed. But more and more private schools (and public charter schools) are being established in strip malls, business buildings (complexes) and older school buildings and grounds that have been abandoned by public schools. Play areas (playground and athletic fields) are smaller, sometimes non-existant, and buildings are subpar (in need of paint and windows). A charter school with a local public school was offered an old school grounds that was abandoned for use with children, and turned into a storage facility. The charter group and parents wanted success so badly, that they went on their own time to clean the facilities, fix up the grounds and try to restore order to the facility. Needless to say it wasn’t longer than 2 years that the charter group dismantled.

4. Transportation. More often than not, even if parents have to pay a dollar or two a day for the convenience, public schools have the ability to transport the children to and from school. Some children, depending on the needs of the students and requirements of federal laws, have buses that will take them miles and miles and miles, just to get them to the ‘correct’ school to give them the education they are guarenteed by law. One district I personally knows will spend an excess of $35,000 just for transportation to take a special needs child to a school 20 miles away from his home to the school that can meet his individual needs.

5. If parents are STRONG advocates for their children, and know their child’s rights, they can get the public school to jump through hoops! The school district won’t like it, admininstrators and teachers will grumble and talk, but they must comply. This is one thing, considering you are paying taxes to support this system, if you know how to use the system, you can get them to provide MANY services for your child. One parent used to call meetings and bring a tape recorder to play for his lawyer everytime we met. Was it upsetting as a teacher?….of course, was it smart on the parent’s part? Absolutely, because if this parent wanted something done for his special needs child, it was done. But your child isn’t a special needs student? You would be surprised how easy it is to get them “designated” and then have the law on your side. One parent I know had the district buy her child a laptop (way before laptops were inexpensive and easy to come by), because she had a medical doctor diagnose him with a condition that he couldn’t write fast enough to keep up with lecture to take notes by hand. Yeah….

So if you have the “fight” in you, and the deligence to stay on top of the system, it can be quite advantages. Is this a good thing?….I don’t know, it is your child, you decide what is best for you and your child.

Now you have both sides of the private/public school debate from someone who has worked and parented in both worlds, with 20+ years of experience in the public schools and private schools,(including public and private university level courses), hope I gave you some insight.

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5 Reasons To Enroll Your Child Into Private School

The other day I was reading a post from a fellow blogger, and as I do respect her/his opinion, I am glad that we live in America, where we still have academic choice for our children.  She/he advocated that just because someone has money, they shouldn’t have the option of their child getting a different education than “all the rest” of the children, because it isn’t ‘fair’.  That is like saying we all have to drive the same cars, because the guy with more money shouldn’t be able to drive a more expensive car (Porsche, Mercedes Benz etc), because that wouldn’t be ‘fair’.  Now of course, you can argue that children are different than cars, and every child deserves an equal opportunity in life.  To me this sounds like a debate between “getting an education and not getting an education” as many other parts of the world experience (especially girls, special needs children or children of low economic/social status) a complete LACK of education to the point they seek education under the threat of death.  Fortunately here in America, that debate is mute, everyone can get an education.  But why, when someone can afford to give their children a different option, it is looked upon as they are evil, and they hate (insert group name here).  For now we will leave the debate on the fairness of education in our society for another time.

I have worked in public school and in private school and I have seen both worlds.  I came up with 5 reasons to enroll your child into private school.  Public schools should take a look at these 5 points, and maybe implement them?

1.  They COMPETE for your business.  When a private school forms, it needs to attract clients to it’s school.  As other great businesses do, they most successful businesses are those with great customer service.  A parent can take their child out of the school at anytime, and save lots of money, so it behooves the school to cater to the parents to keep their business.  This desire to keep clients is lacking in public schools, and I personally have witnessed MANY times when a principal says, “well, if you don’t like it, take them to another school”.  This doesn’t mean catering to the money, it means you need to listen to the ones making you successful.

2.  Better contact with the teachers.  This is an extension of the customer service.  I will venture to say that ALL parents want their children to succeed, be happy and enjoy learning.  Because of this reason, parents want to hear when their child is learning well, where they are successful, and when they are struggling and need extra support.  At  a local public middle school, a parent said she needs to make an appointment with the teacher, several weeks in advance sometimes, just to have a conversation.  They are lucky if they hear anything, and the only way they know of successes or struggles is what is on the report card, or if their child tells them.  Private schools expect teachers to communicate often, to keep their clients informed.

3.  Teachers are responsive to parent concerns.  Another extension of #1.  Private schools often have committes of parent involvement, advisories and information meetings.  They tend to be more active in the school volunteering time, money and other needs of their children.  One might argue, well the rich parents don’t have to work.  On the contrary, most parents in the private schools work to earn a dual income to be able to afford the school, even taking side jobs or building a small business for extra income.  (I don’t have statistics here, strickly my personal experiences and speaking with parents who’s children attend private school that I have been involved in across California).  I am not saying that public school parents don’t volunteer, or donate time and money, they do, (so don’t get mad!), but the percentage of parents is greater at a private school.

4.  Curriculum is more flexible for individual students needs, including advanced skilled and low skilled students.  Often, (not all the time), class sizes are smaller and longer instructional minutes (day) mean students with individual needs can be addressed much easier.  I teach 85 students per day in my science class, where the local public school teacher teaches 180+ per day (average 40 x 5 periods).  With such a large number of students it is nearly impossible to cater to academically advanced students as well as academically challenged, often leaving the task to tutors or academic camps (Lego camps/ competitions, space camps, museum art camps) to help enrich the child’s learning.  Most if not all private schools have become more focused on state standards, and now with Common Core Standards, the entire nation is getting aligning on an agreed upon learning focus that all students must achieve by their grade’s end. And with job shortages, the agruement of “non-credentialled teachers is nearly non-existant.

5.  Additional Activites.  Often, private schools are stepping up to “compete” with public schools in afterschool care, extra-curricular activities (clubs, music lessons, sports) and homework help, (all part of tuition or a little extra), that students are able to stay “in a safe school setting” much easier.

This is a quick list of 5 Reasons to enroll you child into private school….all private schools aren’t the same, and just as public schools, parents should shop around, visit schools, meet the administration, meet the teachers, and ask LOTS AND LOTS of questions.  Good luck in your decision. 

I will soon post “5 reasons to enroll your child into public schools”

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