What would you/do you play for private school tuition? - Page 2

[Drummer's Wife]

We paid $3500 per year when dd was 3 and was in a Montessori preschool 5 days a week, 3 hrs a day. That's cheap for M school but it also wasn't a private school, it was a public magnet school that charged tuition until 1st grade.

[Katie Bugs Mama]

Originally Posted by jkpmomtoboys

I've always wondered this about private school. If you send your child to a non-religious private school, do you do so because the schools in your neighborhoods are not good or the schools offer something that the neighborhood school doesn't?

We send dd to private school because the public schools in our city are not good. The are severely underfunded, doing the best that they can in crumbling buildings with inadequate libraries and non-existant technological resources.

The one public school around here that is considered good is packed to the rafters. Imagine 30 five-year-olds with one teacher in a kindergarten. The administration there is also obsessed with test scores, so it pushes the kids really hard preparing them for the standardized tests. I have nothing against rigorous academics, but it seems ridiculous to teach to a test while doing away with things like recess and art and music. And even if we wanted to send dd there, we couldn't because we can't afford a house in that neighborhood.

There is a brand-new charter school in the next neighborhood over that we seriously considered sending dd too. I really loved the teachers and the curriculum, but when push came to shove I wasn't willing to take a risk on a brand-new start-up. (At the time that we had to make our decision, there weren't even classrooms, just a falling down warehouse, a lot of ideas, and not a lot of time.)

We are fortunate that we were able to scrape together tuition for a nice private school where dd is thriving. If we couldn't, I don't know what we would have done. We probably would have sent her to the charter school and hoped for the best. I'm glad that we didn't have to make that decision.

[aria2000]

$25,000+ in NYC :

[rrmrose]

Wow I feel lucky to have found my daughters school after seeing how much every body else pays. I pay 1200 a year for my daughters privet school.

Rachel

[oceanbaby]

The cheapest private school in our city (not including Catholic schools, which are cheaper) is $14,000/yr. Most are around $18,000/yr. Yeah, right.

[mommy68]

The private school my kids attend offer the same price for tuition no matter what the age is and it goes down for multiple children enrolled. It starts at 4,000/year (per child), not too bad. But we also have to pay for lunches which are 50-60/month, it varies. And we pay for any before and after school which we don't utilize. They also offer tuition assistance for families that can't afford it. Maybe you could check in to the tuition assistance?

Wow, NYC is high. We have a couple of private schools in our town that are really high, like college tuition high. But the ones in NY beat those

[cchrissyy]

where I am, the 5-day preschools are 900-1100 a month.

[cortsmommy]

I pay $4,500 a year (sep thru may) for just 3 days a week (M, T, W) at a waldorf kindergarten. (ages 3-7) and I send lunch daily.

Its worth every penny to us though.

[MOM2ANSLEY]

In our area private schools range from about 2500-20000 yr depending on grade
It seems relig. based are less and montessori is more, and the priciest sp? is a "college prep" school but their SAT scores are not that much higher than others...are not as high as one of the relig. based...but that could be that that relig. based school will choose not to let a pupil re-enroll I he does not "apply" himself to his schoolwork

[mommy68]

.

[chinaKat]

Holy cow, this is insane!

I'm new to this forum (DD will possibly begin pre-school in the fall). I had no idea private school was *that* spendy.

We definitely can't afford those kind of prices. We're living on one income so that I can stay home with DD (and baby on the way), so things are tight already.

Fortunately our public school system has a preschool, so if DD gets in (they have a lottery for open spaces) she can go there. I certainly hope our public school experience here doesn't completely suck, because DH and I have already agreed that homeschooling full time isn't going to work for us.

I went to public school and I found that it was what I made of it.... hopefully that will hold true today as well.

[~*~MamaJava~*~]

We haven't started yet but the schools we're looking at are around $9-10k per family, not per child (obviously important in our case ) - that's Canadian.

[carmel23]

My oldest son attended a preschool that was 900 dollars per month for full-time; he went 3 days per week and I think it was about 700 dollars per month.

My second ds will attend a co-op preschool 4 days per week (I'll work there 1 day per week) for 1/2 days at $244 per month ...

My oldest boy attends a Catholic school which is $500 dollars per month--Catholic schools are less expensive than other private schools because the Catholic Church spends a great deal of money per child; his school has music, spanish, art, daily science (for K, even)... for the bay area this is a really good value...

[Tiffany_PartyOf5]

About $400 a month per child is what we will pay if we choose private school.. or if we go with the Waldorf school, it will be $550 per month per child

[Kerlowyn]

My 13 yr old DS attends a 'home school co-op" of 12 kids. It costs $3500 a year, but it's just 7 & 8th grade. I am praying he gets into one of the charter schools in the area for 9-12 even though I will need to drive him up to 45 minutes away (there are carpools) The public schools in my town are not so great :

[oyemicanto]

Originally Posted by jkpmomtoboys

I've always wondered this about private school. If you send your child to a non-religious private school, do you do so because the schools in your neighborhoods are not good or the schools offer something that the neighborhood school doesn't?

I have serious issues with public school - the biggie being mandated high-stakes testing starting in 3rd grade. The school DD attends is wonderful. Here is it's website: http://www.villageschool.to