Is it worth it? Kindy/school district related

happ17

K, so I'm on the border of 2 school districts. The one I'm zoned for unfortunately isn't a very good one--at least, the junior high and high schools are really bad. I know they did an overhaul of the elementary schools in the past couple of years, but I don't know how they stack up now.

The one we border is one of the best school districts in the state.

I called up and found out I can send PAC to the better one for something like 13,000 to 15,000 a year. 

Here's my question: is it worth it for kindy and first grade? We're going to move to a better district once the market picks up, so I'm not worried about 2nd/3rd grade on.

Or, I can look into some of our local catholic schools, which run from 3500-5,000 a year. The only problem with that is we're not catholic, or even christian for the matter. 

JOEBunny

If the school your in is bad, I would find a private school.  Catholic schools here are all over the board, so it would depend on the one.  I am atheist, but would still send my child to a catholic school.  My nephew goes to catholic school and it has been a good experience, of course, my brother is catholic, so that helps.  I would send DD to the Friends School if I thought the school here wasn't good. 

veloelle

I would not spend $13k in Kindie. A couple grand, yes.

AnneUCSB

I'm confused... why would you have to pay to go to another district if it is public school?  

xbrooklyngrl

veloelle:

I would not spend $13k in Kindie. A couple grand, yes.

word!

 

AnnapolisLari

I would not spend $13-15K for kindergarten or first grade. No way.

Most elementary programs are pretty much nurturing environments for kids. It's middle and high school where the district ratings become more of an issue to me.

happ17

yeah...I was thinking 13-15K was a little much for kindy as well. That's almost as much as daycare! I was surprised by private school, though. I thought it would cost more.

I'm going to talk to DH about it. We still have another year or whatever before we'd have to register. I just started thinking about it now because I had to make a few calls to get him evaluated. 

anne-you pay taxes to your school district, so you'd have to pay tuition to go to a better one. We thought we'd be out of here before we had to worry about schools, but the market sucks right now. 

omurray

I would not spend that kind of money on elementary school.  I would consider the 3-5k depending on what the public school is like.  However, I'd definitely go observe and ask lots of questions before deciding the public school isn't good enough.

omurray

I don't know what the markets are like in your area.  But, I'd do the math on whether or not it makes more sense to just move now.  I'd rather spend/lose 26-30k (cause you mentioned a couple years) on a real estate transaction that gets my family into a better school district from the get go, than to spend that much on kindergarten and first grade.  I understand your situation may be much different than that, but just throwing it out there in case the cost of moving outweighs the cost of paying for a different school district.

MTbridess

omurray:

I would not spend that kind of money on elementary school.  I would consider the 3-5k depending on what the public school is like.  However, I'd definitely go observe and ask lots of questions before deciding the public school isn't good enough.

Ditto - I too was surprised at how little some private schools cost - at least compared to full-time daycare.  Good luck - at least you have a year to decide.

joseysbride

$15,000?!  Holy crap, I thought that was a typo!  No, I would not spend that for elementary.  I would almost be inclined to say that you'd be better off taking a hit and sell your home for less and move now than to pay $30K in grade school tuition for the next couple of years.

I would definitely spend $3-$5K, though.  I can't comment on the fact that it is a Catholic school because, well, I'm Catholic, so that wouldn't matter to me!

peekaboo716

MTbridess:

omurray:

I would not spend that kind of money on elementary school.  I would consider the 3-5k depending on what the public school is like.  However, I'd definitely go observe and ask lots of questions before deciding the public school isn't good enough.

Ditto - I too was surprised at how little some private schools cost - at least compared to full-time daycare.  Good luck - at least you have a year to decide.

I guess this is my thought too. We have to pay for kindie (well, the half day to bring DS up to full-day status), and that will run almost $3600. I'm no help.

jlw2505

happ17:

 

anne-you pay taxes to your school district, so you'd have to pay tuition to go to a better one. We thought we'd be out of here before we had to worry about schools, but the market sucks right now. 

This is not the case in every state.  In MN, you can open enroll into any district, space permitted and not pay anything outside of your normal.  This is what we will be doing with the hopes of moving into the district once the economy improves/we can sell our house and not loose money.  My older DD is already going to PreK in the district we will open enroll into (we pay for PreK) and she is repeating PreK next year and then we will do the formal open enrollment stuff next year Jan for 2012-2013 school year.  We should get in due to the PreK program we are in.  She already gets her speech therapy through the school we open enroll to - our home district and open enroll district have a tutition agreement so the one school pays the other school.  The elementary school we are going to open enroll to is a "school of choice" in the district and about 40% of the kids are open enrolled from other districts - mainly my home district, the city of Minneapolis and one other close by city that is south of the district (I am to the north).  I think how it works varies by state.

JOEBunny

Interesting what the other posters are saying.  I don't think $13K is out of the norm for private school around here and you sure can't send your kid to any public school you want.  The next district over has a 98% poverty rate, my friends that live there mostly pay for private and a few go to unhappily charter school which is free, but has its issues to, but "only 50% poverty.  But no way in hell would they send there kids to the local school.  Poverty = sucky education (here at least). 

penguingrrl

I think I remember reading at some point that you're in Westchester (not a stalker, just noticed the other NYers), so 13-15K for Kindy sounds right for this area. We're in Manhattan and looking into the Catholic school because it's one of the only remotely affordable options for preK next year at only 7,000. Most private schools start around $25k and up for K-4, 35K for middle school. That said, we are former Catholics who left the church very disgruntled. But, if our choice is a good Catholic school or a very bad public (which right now are our two options for preK) we'll go with Catholic. I would also definitely consider that in your case since 15K is a lot for kindy.

I think you might also want to look at the elementary schools there on their own and disregard the middle/high schools. You may be pleasantly surprised by the ratings for the elementary programs. I have an aunt who raised her kids in Hastings and teaches elementary in Yonkers. She says that some of the elementary schools in Yonkers are as good as what she saw in Hastings (she has 5 kids), but that the middle and high school are not good. Not sure where you are, but it may be the same type of thing, where there are some great elementary schools, especially as Westchester is becoming less affordable by the minute, so more young families are in the traditional poorer school districts and are likely getting involved in improving them as moving is being pushed back in this economy.

ccm1203

penguingrrl:

I

I think you might also want to look at the elementary schools there on their own and disregard the middle/high schools. You may be pleasantly surprised by the ratings for the elementary programs.

  I very much agree with this.  Especially if they recently did a major overhaul. Can you try talking to parents who have young kids in your school district?

EMT

I certainly couldn't afford to pay that much for elementary school. I think I would check out the ratings on the public elementary or go with the catholic school option (assuming it's a good school).

Otherwise, yeah, i'd move.