Would you send your kids to your city's public sch

[tonybologna]

Are there any major cities in the U.S. which have a public school system you would send your kids to? It seems with all this urban renewal that one thing that our cities are still not attracting are families, contrary to Canadian and European cities.

One criteria I like to look at is SAT scores- gauges the overall ability of your child to adapt to unfamiliar and make wise choices/ educated guesses which is a function of the overall quality of their education. Also graduation rate is important. I kind of disregard state exams because they have been changed around so much and sometimes I believe biased to give better results...

[ironchapman]

I am a student of Douglas County(GA)'s Public School system. It is just outside of Atlanta.

I would send my kids there. It is one of GA's best. Several State Schools of Excellence, National Blue Ribbon School, and a Georgia Lighthouse School to watch.

The Blue Ribbon, one of the Schools of Excellence, and the Lighthouse school all belong to one school, Chapel Hill Middle School.

[tonybologna]

I am a student of Douglas County(GA)'s Public School system. It is just outside of Atlanta.

I would send my kids there. It is one of GA's best. Several State Schools of Excellence, National Blue Ribbon School, and a Georgia Lighthouse School to watch.

The Blue Ribbon, one of the Schools of Excellence, and the Lighthouse school all belong to one school, Chapel Hill Middle School.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, but that public school system is not within Atlanta's city limits. Most people who have kids live outside city limits and send kids to a school outside city limits. Anyone here live and send your kids to school within city limits? By city I mean populations ay 300,000 or higher.

[Topher1]

It just depends on the school district you live in within the city. Both Orlando and Tampa's city limits contain some excellent schools. They also contain some awful schools. Many of Tampa's city schools were ranked very high in the recent list of top high schools that was published. Of course, there are plenty of awful schools, but in most cities, there is a way for a kid to get a great public education.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

I would not send my children (if I had any) to a public school. The system does not work as of now. Millions of tax dollars funneled in wont save it either. The ACLU and other organizations have brought the teachers to their knees and humbled them mightily in the name of improving diversity and helping the less fortunate.

Teachers are not allowed to teach morality, that

[atlrvr]

I would send my son to public school here in Charlotte, in fact he will start kindergarten this fall. It is however hit-or-miss here in Charlotte, and we bought a house specifically to be in a certain district that has exceptionally good, elem, middle, and highschools (and paid out the A$$ for it) There were many home that we looked at that we did not buy because of the schools serving it. Private school is an option, but we felt the particular schools that we ended up with are equal to private schooling here (and I went to private school in Charlotte).

When I was considering moving to a different cities, I found that it would be near impossible to live in the center city and send my son to public school (Boston, D.C., etc.).....we considered Atlanta, and found 1 or 2 school districts that seemed good, but decided to stay here.

[ironchapman]

The schools in the northern parts of Atlanta are fine, but below I-20, beware, there are several more dangerous schools.

[Topher1]

I do agree that a lot of students in public schools are not what one would consider "ideal" students, but the fact remains that if a student wants to learn and has parents who will guide them and provide proper discipline, then they will succeed, regardless of where they attend schools. The only reason I would consider not sending my kids to public schools is if there is a big crime problem in the local schools. Other students can have a negative influence, but it's the parent's job to equip the student to make the proper choices. And in the long run, attending a diverse school with students of all social and economic backgrounds will only help kids in the future.

As for the "educational quality" of public schools... My city public high school was about 60/40 white black with about 1500 kids. Graduation rates were pretty bad and there were tons of kids with no direction. But the top 20% of the school could compete with students anywhere in the country, and the quality of instruction was excellent. Out of the 4 AP classes that I took, only 2 students failed an AP exam (out of at least 80 students who were all required to take the exam). My graduating class had 3 students with perfect Math SAT scores and 1 with a perfect English SAT score. Our academic team was consistently #1 or #2 in the state, and our Math team was also highly ranked. Athletics and band programs were all great, etc, etc...

In short, I received just as good of an education (with many more academic options) at a subpar public school than I would have received at a private school. Plus I had access to a variety of extracurricular activities that most private schools could only dream of.

[peaceloveunderstanding]

^did you feel safe as a kid though?

About Public Schools in Charlotte.

Yes, if you pay for being in the South side. Endhaven Rd and Mckee Rd, South Charlotte Middle School, Providence or the new ballantyne school, your not going to have many problems. They are on par or better then the private schools. They essentially have the private school type population.

But anywhere else in Charlotte I would not.

[Topher1]

^did you feel safe as a kid though?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I felt extremely safe in middle and high school. I had friends in all social classes. The only kids that I was somewhat wary of were the self-pitying, trenchcoat-wearing, Marilyn Manson-alike, rich white kids.

My elementary school was the worst in the district (it was a rural school), and there was a bit of a "survival of the fittest" mentality, but all in all, nearly everyone got along (we were all from similar rural, poor backgrounds). While the vast majority of the students didn't perform well, the school made great accomodations for the advanced students (I spent several hours a day in a grade above my own + independent study). There were also weekly programs that combined the gifted students from each school in the district to provide more fast-paced, challenging learning.

The only thing that I would have changed safety-wise, is that had I chosen to "come out" in high school, I would have felt extremely unsafe. I don't know how this experience would compare to a private school. There were a few "out" girls in my school, but the only "out" male that I knew of ended up transferring to a different school in town, because he was made to feel unsafe.

[TheGerbil]

I attended public city schools. You can get a good education if you want one and are willing to try.

Sure, they aren't as well funded as many suburban schools, but I think they get a bad rap that isn't really valid. Students who want to learn can learn, and do well on tests. Granted, I was in a good program within the city schools, but that just goes to show that they do have goodthings to offer to students who care and who work hard.

I never felt in danger either.

[G W North]

I've never understood the perceived (real) difference in sending your kids to inner-city schools versus suburban schools in the United States. Here in Canada there is no difference in quality of schools whether they are inner-city, suburban, in rich neighborhoods, in poor neighborhoods, etc.

As a parent I'd only be concerned with how my kid is doing, not how the "average" student at my kid's school is doing.

>>I attended public city schools. You can get a good education if you want one and are willing to try.

Sure, they aren't as well funded as many suburban schools<<

How does the funding work in the United States? In Canada, schools could funded based on the number of students, so a 1000-pupil school in the inner-city would get the same funding as a 1000-pupil school in the suburbs. Are public schools in the U.S. not funded on a per-pupil basis?

[monsoon]

The Charlotte school system is a county wide system serving both the city and suburbs. 12 of its 17 highschools are in the top 100 of the USA and 5 of them are inner city schools. It does not matter if you live in the suburbs or city, kids have access to the same education. I would have no problem sending my kids to a CMS school if I had kids.

[Aessotariq]

I've never understood the perceived (real) difference in sending your kids to inner-city schools versus suburban schools in the United States. Here in Canada there is no difference in quality of schools whether they are inner-city, suburban, in rich neighborhoods, in poor neighborhoods, etc.

Money. Most schools in the U.S. are primarily funded at the local level by property taxes, and some state and federal subsidies are additional sources. School districts also vary in size and tax base from city to city, state to state. The inner-city vs suburban schools issue comes from the fact that school districts serve a limited geographic area and can only collect taxes within that area: perhaps only within the corporate limits of a city, perhaps a suburb or two, a county, etc. A poor city would have a more limited and strained tax base than a rich suburb.

My state, Florida, is a state that only has countywide school districts. There are 67 school boards for each of the 67 counties. City and county governments don't have the responsibility of providing or funding schools; an independent school board levies taxes and provides schools throughout the entire county. This helps mitigate the funding disparity between city and suburb that you might see in other states.

On the other hand, the state's largest school districts that serve urban areas are growing so fast that the older schools within the district get neglected (repairs, facility upgrades, computers, etc.) since money has to be redirected to build new schools in a vain attempt to keep up with growth. In general, our state does not provide enough funding and it doesn't require developers to allocate space for schools with their new developments (pure urban vs. rural politics). Developers can get away with building mammoth developments that strain existing schools, and the state has done nothing about it. And urban areas often pay more in taxes than they receive in return from the state, and rural school districts receive disproportionately more than their fair share of state funding.

School performance often varies by neighborhood, and if the public school that serves my neighborhood is a good school, I would send my child there, but I would leave the option open to sending my child to a better public school within the same system a few miles away if I thought that school was better.

[waccamatt]

I wouldn't send them to private school. You don't learn about life from being isolated. A child that wants to learn will learn.

[053e'de]

Almost every school in The Netherlands is public, so almost every child here goes to a public school, the majority of the schools are average and some way above average some way beneath average.

In my country Schools are for different levels, you got middle schools and high schools vor the average students, for the somewhat smarter students and for the really bright students who are going to make it to a university one day.

Ofcourse with this system it obviously means that if you are going to a school for average students ( MAVO level ) than you

[urbanplanetuser]

I wouldn't send them to private school. You don't learn about life from being isolated. A child that wants to learn will learn.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's not an entirely fair thing to say. While I agree that some priave schools cater simply to the rich and make the kids Isolated, that's not the case of all. I went to Gonzaga College High School in the District of Columbia. It is located about 10 blocks from the capitol building right down North Capitol street. The school spends over $1 million a year on tuition assistance, sends many students to spend weeks in the summer serving in low-income areas in the united states as well as in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, and finally has a soup kitchen, built into the basement of the church on campus, which students serve at every day during their lunch hour. In summary, it is not fair to label all private schools the same.

Now in answer to the actual post, I wouldn't send my kids (if i had any) to school (at least not high school) at a public school in Washington, because i would be afraid that they would get shot or poisoned. This is not w/o cause b/c there were in the past school year several shootings just outside DC Public Schools and multiple schools were also evacuated, some for weeks, while being cleaned out after students messed around and poisoned their schools w/ mercury.

[Khashbaatar_Tsagaanbaatar]

When it comes to schooling, often times it is an individual's desire to learn that is the ultimate deciding factor in how good an education one may recieve. Granted, educators and administrators within a school system may be a huge factor in actually motivating a person to learn, but in the case of most schools (even the "worst" school districts in America), teachers are qualified enough to present the facts and care enough about the students to see that they at least try.

I've lived in Arkansas, a state with a notorious school system, and have finished high school prepared for college and life beyond thanks the the school system.

[ctman987]

There are cities with public school systems that are not so hot but there are also cities with public schools that are not so hot but they also offer other options for the children of that particular city.

I am aware that this discussion in particular id dealing with cities of 300,000+ people but I am still going to talk about the city of Hartford, CT since even though it only has 124,000 people with in the city limits it still faces the same problems that many other cities are dealing with. The majority of the cities population is hispanic and african american (largest percentage of Hispanics/Latinos north of Florida and east of the Mississippi) with whites making up the minority.

The cities public schools are plagues with numerous problems, although many of them are exaggerated over by the local media. Still though there are many options for city students to attend magnet schools, suburban public schools or private schools.

There are numerous magnet schools located in the city itself and in the suburbs. Some focus on certain topics such as math and science and other on general studies. At these schools children from the inner city are allowed to go to school with children from the suburbs and all of this is free for all the students.

The "Sheff vs. O'Neill" case made it clear that there was extreme segragation between the students in the cities public schools and the students in the mainly white suburban public schools. The ruling made it possible for inner city students to be allowed to attend the areas suburban public schools with free transportation provided.

Lastly there are more then 9 private middle and high schools and more then 5 catholic middle and high schoools in the Greater Hartford area. These schools bend over backwards to travel through the streets of Hartford to look for students to attend these prestigous schools. One of the prestigous private schools is located in Hartford and another just over the border. These schools give free tuition to hundreds of inner city students in addition to giving back to the community. Many of these schools participate in acts of community service whether it being serving food at a homeless shelter or helping kids to read at a Hartford elementary schools.

[DetroitBazaar]

Wouldn't even dream of it in Detroit. When I was a bit younger, some of the schoolbooks they used were at least 2 grade levels lower than those across 8 mile-border with suburbs. I lean toward private schools, or homeschooling so I may be biased here.

Peace from DetroitBazaar