S/o private schools...

tarebear9891

If your budget only allowed for a nice private school or vacations which would you choose and why?

I guess what I am asking is that is education more important to you or worldly experience?

nanabanana06

My situation is different. DH has OCD and doesn't do vacations well. Also, his parents have expressed an interest in helping to pay for private school. So we would choose the private school.

quidditchcapn1120

It depends if the public schools in the area were good or not.  I fully intend on moving somewhere with really good public schools.

However, if that wasn't an option and my child needed to attend a private school in order to get a good education, I would always choose education. 

FezzesAreCool

Vacation.

I did the private school thing.  DH went to public school.  We got the same level of education.

Education is important, don't get me wrong.  I would like my kids to obtain a better understanding of the world and the people in it and you don't get that solely in a classroom.  The world is becoming smaller and smaller and I think real life experience is just as important as a classroom experience.

 Also, I think that geography is an important part of living in this world and that is rarely, if ever, taught in the classroom anymore. 

 

CoffeeBeen

Like pp said, it depends on the public school option.  If we lived in a really, really bad district then I'd go with school.  But as it is I live in a really, really good district so we never even considered wasting money on private schools.

To address your overarching question, I don't know if the average family vacation gives  a very worldly experience.  If more families were visiting Gettysburg and less were visiting the beach then I think it'd be a fairer comparison. 

quidditchcapn1120

Are we talking hypotheticals here or reality?  I currently live in the Chicago Public School District.  We won't be staying here but if we had no choice, I don't think the public schools here are safe enough to send him to if I had a choice.  Same with our last location- Kansas City Public Schools were notoriously dangerous and ranked very low in terms of test scores and graduation rates.

tarebear9891

I was going for hypothetical. Basically would you use the 18,000 in the previous post for private school or vacations.

Personally I would go with the vacations. I think kids can learn a lot by exploring different cultures.

quidditchcapn1120

CoffeeBeen:

Like pp said, it depends on the public school option.  If we lived in a really, really bad district then I'd go with school.  But as it is I live in a really, really good district so we never even considered wasting money on private schools.

To address your overarching question, I don't know if the average family vacation gives  a very worldly experience.  If more families were visiting Gettysburg and less were visiting the beach then I think it'd be a fairer comparison. 

Also this.  I hope to be able to take my kids to Europe, historical US landmarks, etc.  The average American vacation is more theme park and beach oriented though. 

MrsGoodkat

We have great public schools here so I'd choose vacations. 

hammerb44

It really depends on your schooling options, but I'd pick a better education over a family vacation any day.  Kids are in school every day and it has such a significant impact on their lives.  Maybe you won't be able to afford big vacations but you may be able to afford short road trips and outings. 

saraboston

It depends. We living in a top school districts now, but if we weren't I'd probably go with schools. But I'm torn. I think even an excellent school can only do as much as the parents do. While cool vacations can provide awesome life experience that you can't get in school. 18k isn't much more than we pay for DC, so we'll just do both! :

MrsSR

We have great public schools in this area, but I'd pick private for the religious ed and smaller class sizes.

klondikebar

If we lived within an undesirable school district, I'd choose using the money for education. There are ways to enrich your children and spend fun, quality time with them without traveling to the ends of the earth IMO.

penguingrrl

We are overextending ourselves to be in a district with fantastic public schools. If that weren't an option due to job location (although we'd be hard-pressed to accept a job in an area where there are no good public schools in commuting distance) then we would absolutely never vacation again and delay retirement by 10+ years in order to send our kids to a fabulous private school. Education is our top priority and we will do whatever is in our power to give our children a great education.

Wufroggy79

Private school.  Education comes before vacations.

laurakaz13

We travel a ton.  We're both in the military and have lived all over the world.  I think that becoming more worldly is extremely important and will be non-negotiable for DD. 

We would be able to afford a private school education and travel, so we would just make it work so that both (not as fancy a private school and not as fancy a travel budget) occur.  There's no way I could pick just one of these two things. 

ablou

I'm really not a fan at all of the Texas public school system, so we're planning on secular private school.  Bean is in a French immersion preschool right now, and their program goes up through junior high right now.  So, he'll be staying there for the forseeable future.

RayRay007

The public schools here are good. I don't think my kid would get anything out of going to private school, so I'd choose vacation.

ATMmom324

We purposely bought a house within a great scoop district. Also the private schools around here are extremely limited and only Catholic. I am not impressed with them what so ever. We will be using extra money to give our children worldly experiences. It saddens me when I hear adults say they have never flown or left the state they live in.