Homeschool versus Private Christian School

[mjnicholas]

My oldest daughter will be in 7th grade this next fall and she has been in private, Christian school since Pre-kindergarten. We also have a daughter who will be in 1st grade and one who will be in pre-kindergarten this fall. We are really debating about bringing them home to homeschool them from this point forward. The private school education is good, but there are a number of things we are concerned about - 1. the cost is getting ridiculously expensive and with three kids in school I'm not sure we can continue to afford it; 2. the majority of the kids are from wealthy families and remind other students of that quite often; 3. I don't know how many children are there because it is a Christian school or because it simply isn't a public school; 4. It is about 20 minutes from our house so during sports season we are running back and forth all the time; 5. Several more that I don't want to list at this moment. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and have switched to homeschooling. I'm wondering how my 7th grade daughter will adjust to it more than anything. (And, how I would adjust to it, quite honestly!) Thanks for any help you can give me.

[alisarussell]

I don't have a teenager so I can't help you there. I am bringing my 9 year old and 6 1/2 year old home to start homeschooling in the fall from public school, and the reason we are not going to a private school is because of the cost. In our area, there is a private school that costs $18,000/ year. Isn't that ridiculous?

[Theodore]

Well, you get what you pay for. You and I find that price ridiculous, but it probably does allow the school to afford a full range of the best teachers, a low student-teacher ratio, a computer lab, science lab, etc. etc. I wouldn't pay the $18,000 anyway, but obviously someone is paying it, otherwise the school wouldn't still be alive.

As contrast, the average public school budget per student in 1994-95 was $6,084 (or as high as $9,429 for New Jersey), and I imagine it's gone up since then. I tried to find current statistics but failed. Some of the richer areas drew over $19,000 per student. The only real difference between public and private school funding is that if public schools waste money, nothing happens, while if private schools waste money, they die. Private schools generally supply a much better education for the same amount of money.

Just FYI.

[mjnicholas]

Well, you get what you pay for. You and I find that price ridiculous, but it probably does allow the school to afford a full range of the best teachers, a low student-teacher ratio, a computer lab, science lab, etc. etc. I wouldn't pay the $18,000 anyway, but obviously someone is paying it, otherwise the school wouldn't still be alive.

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I can't imagine paying $18,000 per year for one student, but I suppose you're right about some of the reasons they charge that much. I have been complaining to my husband because my childrens' school will cost us $13,000 for all three of them when they all get there. That doesn't seem so bad as the 18K per student.

[alisarussell]

But the tuition goes up the older they get. And the figure I quoted was for a 3rd grader.

[mjnicholas]

That is incredible! I can't imagine anyone actually being able to pay that! It makes me a little more thankful for our Christian school, I guess.

[alisarussell]

We know this family from Cub Scouts, and the father is an engineer with a weapons manufacturer. His son was put on medication in 1st grade for ADD, and they had such a problem regulating it that he kind of missed out on everything in 1st and 2nd grade. When he began 3rd grade, they took him out of ps and put him in this very small and exclusive private school. My dh and I were curious (I know, not the best thing to be.) and we looked up the school on the Internet. That's how we found out what the tuition was.

[bobbinsx5]

mjnicholas,
My oldest son was going into 7th grade when we pulled our kids out of our church's school to homeschool from this point on. If you go to church with some of those children, one thing you will see is kids trying to prove one is better than the other. That was hard the first month or so. When the kids finally realized Morgan LIKED homeschooling, they seemed to back off about it. With as small as our church and it's school is, everyone knew we weren't in the school, and a lot of people asked questions. We were hit with "why" over and over for about two weeks. As people realized we weren't there, the more we got. Then it all just died down, and people seemed ok. I think the hardest part for us was how our Pastor reacted to it. He had offered me a job to teach at the school and the same time my husband told him I would not be accepting the position, he told Preacher we would be homeschooling. Preacher was hurt, thinking it was a personal attack on him. Once he realized that wasn't it, he was much better.

I give my oldest boy some freedom with his school work the others don't have and he didn't have in the school. This has made his adjustment to homeschooling better.

If you have prayed and know it's God's will, then He will turn your daughter's heart the same. Just pray. Sounds so simple, but we couldn't have survived homeschooling without prayer!

I'm praying you will enjoy your first year and your daughter will be excited about it.

[mjnicholas]

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I really appreciate it! Thankfully, the school isn't associated with our church because I'm sure that would be a difficult transition. Glad things are going well for you!

[sparkie12]

I too have looked into private schools. Just let me begin by saying never, ever would I send my youngest two boys to the public school whose district we live in. My oldest 2 boys went there year before last and it was a J-O-K-E!!! My oldest 2 moved in with their dad last summer to attend public school there this year. It has been really hard; but, they seem to be doing well.

Because the school district where we live is so bad, my husband and I have considered private school. The problem is that the Christian private schools in this area are just as expensive as the secular ones if not more. I agree with Theodore that public school and private schools are pretty much set up the same way except for the amount of money that is being allocated for each student.

I have been playing around with homeschooling for the last 9 months. My son turned 5 in February and he is well ahead academically than other children his age who will be attending Kindergarten in the fall. I plan to purchase a Kindergarten Phonics program and continue with what I have been doing in math and science. I figure how much could I screw him up in one year? I am gonna give it a shot for Kindergarten and then re-assess. I am looking forward to it and if it is what you decide to do, I pray it will be a blessing for you and your children as well.

Blessings, Robin

[Lkat83]

I used to teach in a private school, and I also taught in public schools, way back before my now 14-yr old dd was born. The only differences I saw were the amount of money the families had. The kids were still the same, no matter what. Some were very bright, others had learning difficulties. The same social issues come into play in private or public school. Class size was much smaller in the private school, though. Personally, I'd vote for homeschooling; save that money for college.

[mjnicholas]

Those are good points! Thanks for sharing that! We have decided to give homeschooling a try for this year and see how things go. I think there are definitely a lot of benefits to it besides the financial part, so we prayed about it a lot and decided that was where God was leading us. I appreciate everyone's input!

[WVDonna]

I used to teach in a private school five years ago before I had my son. It was a JOKE. The tuition was about $8,000 and I am quite sure my students didn't recieve the education their parents were paying. No extra curricular activities, no computers, very outdated supplies. Looks can be decieving. I was embarrassed at the resources I had to teach those children. Homeschool is a much better option in my opinion. In addition to the $8,000 often times parents are hit up with constant fundraisers auctions and field trips. I plan to homeschool because of my teaching experiences in both private and public schools. Hope this helps.