I'm currently undergoing a shift of opinion in this area. It's somewhat ironic once you consider what it is that I do for a living. We have two pre-schoolers and they will be pulled from the public schools next year in favor of homeschooling or to attend a private school.

Charter schools resource

Home schooling resource

Public schools resources(NEA)

Wiki-private school entry

Unschooling resource.

For those of you who have children, or have thought of having children, here is the question:

Questions to debate:

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?

I voted "charter school" because of the success we have had with them here- I have always liked the idea of private/public hybirds that takes the best of both worlds and combines them.

I believe all of the questions come heavily qualified- a private school, if it is not simply an ideological indoctrination program that ignores things such as science it doesn't 'believe" in - those schools outright suck- I was placed in one of them for years- though my reading skills were better from that school- I never had a problem with reading and enjoyed reading- it was so bad in sciences and math that I had to take special tutoring to catch up- you can see the system I went through here:

http://www.aceministries.com/Default.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Christian_Education

Those schools, as I said, I would rate the very lowest in terms of actual education that prepares you for the workplace (unless your only desire is to become a minister or preacher in a fundamentalist christian sect - very narrow in focus there)

Charter schools in Alaska do very well, ESPECIALLY for those rural communities, which would ony have 3-5 students in thier school anyway, if they had a public school in their village- we have public schools in a village only if a minimum number is met, so thier choices is a boarding school or charter school- you can see why the latter would be preferable to those in rural areas of Alaska.

http://www.eed.state.ak.us/Alaskan_Schools...ist.cfm?first=5

Those in the links above are Anchorage based charter schools- but this one in particular:

http://www.eed.state.ak.us/Alaskan_Schools...oolNumber=59050

Though based in Anchorage, they are really a bush school- more than half the students are in very rural Alaskan settings. Very, very good program, probably one of the bright beacons of how well a charter school can work.

I suppose I'll ad my two cents.

My experience is with private (Christian and secular) school until high school and public magnet schooling thereafter.

From my experience a good private school is excellent for young children but they can vary widely in quality. My favorite private school experience was the five years of Montessori.

If there are any good Montessori schools that won't bleed you dry you might want to look into it.

My favorite school period was magnet school, by a nose, Montessori was good to me.

They are proof that public schools can be top notch.

Which leads into the politics.

How do you plan on your children being educated?
I believe, on principle, in engagement in the public school system. Whenever I have kids I'd prefer a good economically and ethnically integrated public school.
(They exist)

What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.
Depends on what you mean by best. With enough money a great educational experience can be bought. The blue-blood private schools prove that nicely.

For those with the money private schools are best. However public schools can be wonderful as well it we invest the economic and political capital in them that is necessary.

What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?
Unaccredited private schools. They can often be glorified day-care centers.

Private schooling has the most range of any type of school. From top-notch to bottom-rung.

I've never been keen on homeschooling late in life. For young children it's fine, but higher math, language, and social studies require trained specialists.

To add and clarify my position, if a private school is really interested in educating excellence, and is really focused on the specialized learning, and isn't really an indoctrination center such as the one I posted- I believe they will probably be the best for any kid that attends there, vs public or charter schools- simply because it can be so specific to that child's needs. But that will service a very, very small and exclusive population and isn't realistic for educating the other 99% of the population.

IMO your choice should depend largely upon where you live and the quality of the public school environment. California, generally speaking, has a very poor public school system. It was a very poor system way back in the fifties when I transferred from one state to the next. The first question always asked of my parents was: "Is she transferring in from California?" If that had been the case, I would have been put back one grade. It has not changed much at all, and in some areas of the state the testing scores are worse than they've ever been. If I were to raise children nowadays in California, it would be an accredited private school for junior and high school, and home schooling for the elementary grades.

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?

My children are 8, 6, and 2. I lived in an ethnically diverse community at the edge of a large and widely failing metropolitan school district. I wanted to start in this area, but it was deteriorating, in no small part because of the declining condition of the local school cluster. Just before kindergarten we decided that we had to move. We upgraded to a community that we could barely afford to live in so we could be in the best public school system in the state. Living in the South, even that is not a guarantee for a good situation. But I believe my children are in an excellent academic sistuation for the present and I face another major decision down the road. (If I can continue to afford my present home and stay in the district)

I am seriously considering placing my children in the private school that I work at when they reach middle school, probably at the sixth grade level. They biggest problem for me is cost. I will get a discount and hopefully significant financial aid, but three students in this school may make a big deal of difference in whether I will be able to offer much help for college or not. The weaker students my children are and the more prone they are to peer pressure the more likely I will be to place them i my school, regardless of the cost.



2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

When a private school's mission is providing high quality education, it is the best system for the average student.

I work at a private high school that is what I believe one of the most ideal models for education. We are a secular school and are members of the NAIS/SAIS/TAIS professional organizations that serve as national regional and state organizations for setting standards of quality and a serve as a community for sharing strategies and successes.

The weaknesses of this system are cost, diversity (especially economic) and some limitation of programs.
Additionally, the draining of highly involved families from the public school system is often an effect of the independent school. This dwindles the pool of students in the public school system that emphasize academic performance. The way most public school systems deal with this is to provide an honors/AP track for the dedicated and gifted students of the system. In the good public school systems this track puts students with highly talented peers with experienced and hard working instructors. These students often can earn their way into the top colleges in the nation.

For the average student who will not necessarily work into the top tier, independent schools are a better solution. Middle academic tracks tend, even at the best systems in my state to serve as low challenge holding pens. The students do not need to apply themselves very thoroughly to easily cruise through high school and get a degree. Many of the students are not heading for college, but the curriculum is college prep.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?

The worst option is a situation where my children might be exposed to violent crime, become associated with habitually criminal juvenile delinquents, and be in the danger of getting hurt or learning more about getting in trouble than in getting an education. While our local city is relativiely small, its non-magnet schools are horrific, have a very high dropout rate.
At their worst, the inner city schools provide very few strong classes, a dangerous social environment, and a mood of failing expectations, and a culture of dropping out of school.


Time permitting, I'll research some educational statistics to back this up. But as I said, I have three kids.

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?
My children are in the public school system, we have a very good school that my own mother in fact teaches at. I would not consider anything else, the only concern I have ever had with public schools is class sizes, but my school deals with this really well, have had bad experiences in Virginia tho.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

Why would I supply stats? This seems like a very subjective question, depends on your state and local politics, your own communities make-up your own educational preferences. My brother's children are home schooled and their curriculum is at least %50+ religious and they are not covering evolution. I think that is horrible but they feel it is the best education they could provide for their children.


3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?
I dunno again very subjective. There are worst situations for all options. My husband was taught at a small Catholic school and they lacked a lot of essential things like books etc. and he feels his religious education was a huge detriment to his life. I was educated in likely one of the worst public school systems in the US and experienced just about every fear parents have about the public school. And I already related above what problems I have witnessed in regards to home schooling. I think every child, family and community is different and each option works well or worst for each of them. I even feel that my own two children have very different needs educationally and that we as a family in the future could seek different educational paths for them both.

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?

Our oldest daughter started 1st grade last fall. After sending her to a public school Kindergarten in Kansas, we enrolled her into a Catholic school in Ohio (while I'm deployed). The reasons were many; my wife and I are products of the public schools, and my wife is enough of a catholic to warrant the religious aspect. We really wanted to give it a try after seeing the dismal state of many public systems over the years. Since I don't know yet where I will retire to next year, we are transferring her to the catholic school in Kansas, and will look for the same type of school where we move next.

If we see the school system is good where we'll put down roots, we may reconsider, but for now we're happy with the small class size, the discipline and the extra-cirricular activities that her Catholic school offers.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

I don't think you can claim an across the board best or worst. I'l like to echo Eeyore: When a private school's mission is providing high quality education, it is the best system for the average student. I tend to think that the worst elements in education [facilities, crime, etc...] can be found predominately in public schools. But that's not to say the private/religious schools have a higher qulaity of education versus public in general.

.)How do you plan on your children being educated?Public schools at this point. We have 3 – 16, and twin 12s – all boys. We actually moved in Mass. out of a town that had mediocre schools to a town with good schools. We had our oldest in a private school 2nd grade we were so unhappy with the public school. The when the twins ame we decided we could never afford 3 private education bills and moved.

The grim reality is that there are good and bad schools all over and you literally have to move in this state to get to a town with good schools. Our MCAS teat is helping to expose and improve schools but it is a long process.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

No clear cut answer. My personal belief is that private and charter schools are, on average, better.
3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?
The poor people who must live in poor towns and esp. the inner city have the worst schools. It’s a crime.

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated? Well, I'd always planned on homeschooling, but when I started teaching myself (private pre-K/K program) I enrolled my dd in the pre-K program...her teacher was fantastic and she had her again for the 1st half of kindergarten. I'd planned to homeschool for a few reasons. First, public school was not challenging at all for me and I didn't want to run the risk of dd getting so bored that she starts to hate school (as I did once I hit junior high). She started reading at 3 and now, as a 1st grader (barely making the cutoff, so she's the 'baby' of the class to boot) she reads at a 3rd grade level and she's well ahead in most other academic areas as well. I always wanted to homeschool for at least the first few years so that I could spend more time on things that interest dd (such as geography...kindergarteners don't usually know all 50 states by location, shape, and spelling but mine did) instead of having her sit in a classroom wasting so much time on material that she already fully understands and has mastered. Also, I thought homeschooling would be best because you can't beat a student-teacher ratio of 1-1. The best teacher in the world can only do so much for each individual student's academic needs when he/she has 20 or more students. In a typical classroom (especially in the youngest grades) there are such varying degrees of ability that only the average students' needs are really met. When you have one student, you can cater to their needs while still maintaining necessary state guidelines. The only downside I have ever seen with respect to homeschooling is having the same teacher (which doesn't have to be an issue if you work within a homeschooling group/network) and not having to adapt to new situations in that regard. But all in all, I've always been an advocate of homeschooling.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible. I've always been slightly biased in favor of homeschooling (for many reasons), but I do think that the right public/private/charter school setting can be just as good as homeschooling. We were fortunate to have been in a great public school for the 2nd half of K and 1st half of 1st (she starts in a new, not-so-great public school tomorrow...the one upside is that they offer gifted services beginning in K while her old school's program doesn't start until 4th grade). Not only does it depend on the school, but also the student. Some kids just don't thrive in certain environments. Once my 3 month old is of age, I'll be teaching in public schools (more than likely anyway), so I certainly don't dislike public schools. I just know that there are HUGE disparities among public schools throughout the country. Some schools can't supply current textbooks or desks, let alone technological stuff such as computers while others have huge computer labs and state-of-the art equipment and high teacher salaries. Like turnea, I attended a public magnet school (we had a ton of different magnets, but I attended for performing arts). My school had a fantastic reputation for the magnet programs (and seemed to have funding growing on trees for magnet programs), but academics left something to be desired. My sister attended a charter school (actually she attended three from 7th grade through high school), also performing arts-centered. Her schools were also less focused on academics. Again, it all depends on the school itself what is 'best'.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation? Locally (Surprise, Arizona) public schools are horrible. They are getting better (though, that's not saying much because you can't get much worse than what they were), but only because the area has shifted from lower class to upper-middle over the past 10-15 years. We're in the fastest growing district in the state of Arizona. The waiting lists for charter schools here are ridiculous because of the reputation the public schools have. I don't like sending dd to the public school here, but since we moved mid-year, we don't have much choice.

We have the same problem, though people don't like to acknowledge it. I was absolutely incredulous when I read this article. In it, a middle school failed standards when it came to english language learners and special education students. What is the concern?, that people will think "negatively" of the school. So a bunch of parents are printing stickers about school pride and trying to pump themselves up over the failing indicators of their school. They did pass the majority of their standards, and that needs to be stated for fairness sake. At the same time, these parents are not the parents of a SPED kid who isn't being challenged or having their needs met. Maybe they need to talk to one another as to why this is. Schools love the SPED funding and such, providing adequate services is another thing as mainstreaming without support is a mechanism to cut costs. Rather than print stickers, maybe the school community needs to come together to address the issue of shoddy education for SPED students, ELL learners, and children who aren't the child of a board member.

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?
By the highest quality teachers.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.
Our decision was based on the quality where we lived at the time, so our children went to private school. We moved and now they attend public school.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?
Public schools are always the worst in any area, even if they are good. I've never heard of a bad private school. Homeschooling depends on the parents, but none could care more about the education of their children then these parents. I've never tried a charter schools, because we have too many politicians owned by the NEA.

My background.... I was homeschooled until college. I went to community college, transferred to UNC Charlotte to complete my degree. During this time I had tons of friends, no social problems, and believe it or not I'm not socially awkward! haha

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?

I can't answer that question at this time. I would to be able to homeschool my children if it's possible. However, having a parent stay home full time is difficult. I think the public school system works for children who have parents that care.

2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.

This goes back what I just said... I think we spend too much time on the institution and not the family. I wasn't taught evolution (gasp!! omg!!). Believe it or not evolution isn't used in every day life. My job doesn't require it. I've watched enough TV, read Darwin myself, to get the picture. Who cares, Christians that get up in arms about this stuff annoy me, and people who think evolution needs to be taught like gospel are missing the point. Education is about preparing people for work/life. The best option is having parents/parent who is actively involved in child's education.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?

The worse option is a child who's parents don't care. If a parent doesn't care, the child won't care, and it's going to be very difficult for that person to get an education.

I was in public school, and in high school, went to a private, prominent military school (academic, I was not a "problem child").

1.)How do you plan on your children being educated?
My son is 16. The public schools in California and Arizona were a disaster, partly (sorry fellow Conservative) due to the No Child Left Behind Act.

He is currently Charter/Home schooled through the Arizona Virtual Academy.
2.)What school option is the best? Please provide sources and statistics if possible.
So far, the Virtual Academy has been the best. Each child in Arizona is allotted around $8,000. So instead of a large building, with prime real estate (complete with books and desks left to "whatever is left in the budget"), my kid gets his own computer every year with free high speed internet access, gets his books mailed to him and has access to teachers via email and voice mail, as well as an online "blackboard".

The communication with the parents and teachers is awesome. There are organized social events, sports, and the rest of the things you'd find at a traditional school.

But what's exciting is what you don't get. Grafitti laden walls, back-talking students, disruptive classrooms, and student/teacher ratios of 35-to1. If my son wants to do online college courses afterwards, he's ready to go, and that seems to be the wave of the future.

3.)What school option is the "worst," at least, in your area of the nation?
I'd favor the military school and the online charter schools. Public schools? Obselete, broken, over-crowded (part of that is the illegal issue in AZ too, so I can't blame that on the schools except that the NEA rolled over the legal parents to educate everybody, but that's another debate.)

KMSouthern, check out the Arizona Virtual Academy for next year. They're still accepting enrollments, and I highly recommend it. My cub has learned more in 6 months on this program than he learned in public school in the last 2 years.