How much is too much for a high school edu?

[irain]

How much do you consider too much for (a private) high school tuition?

Mine is about 14k per year. It can be a bit of a struggle for my parents to pay, but they thinks it's going towards a good purpose.

What's your opinion on high school tuition? Also, what's your opinion on private high schools in general?

 

[d wade]

i went to private school. good discipline for college. also, much better education than public schools. i am happy i went.

and 14k is a little much.. my university tuition doesnt even cost that much per year.

 

[Tanglewood]

I like my high school education at the usual price...free. My high school was great and ranked 833 out of 27,468 by Newsweek recently.

My personal opinion would be to find a good public school near you and transfer and save you money for a good college because if you plan to go out of state it will get expensive real fast.

 

[thedude110]

also, much better education than public schools.

Actually, no.

 

[panoz7]

I went to a private school also. Tuition was 15k. I only went there for 4 years but both of my siblings will go there for 7... the cost certainly adds up.

I don't think it was worth the money. It was a great school and I learned a lot, but I'm not sure how much I gained over a good public school. I'm incredibly thankful that I went there, mostly because I met some terrific people that I would have never had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

 

[panoz7]

Actually, no.

I just heard that report the other day. It was very interesting.

In my case the private high school I went to provided me with a much better education then my local county high school. If moving isn't an option (it was for me... but my parents decided to stay put) sometimes private schools are the only real choice for a quality education, which is really quite sad actually.

 

[Kwyjibo]

The local versus public argument really comes down to where you live. If you live in an area with a great public school system, take up what you're already paying in tax dollars ...

If you live in a not so great area then I can see the discrepancy. A few of my friends went to catholic school for 12 years and their parents can't pay for their college so they're on loans now, whereas my parents have a little around to help with tuition which is always nice because I spent my days in a great public system.

I year I graduated my HS was around 600 in the newsweek thing and top for our area and to be honest they poached plenty of the local catholic teachers with higher pay and better benefits ...

 

[SuperSnake2012]

My school costs around $9000-$10000 a year... I know a few people who go to independent schools where tuition is higher than most colleges ($32k a year! )

 

[After G]

You shouldn't pay for a high school education.

However, there's not too much choice in paying with regards to college, trade school, technical school, post-graduate studies, graduate studies, medical school, law school, seminars, conferences, and everything else, though. Save your money for one, or all of those.

(only if your public system is up to standards though)

 

[latergator116]

I think in most cases anything is too much for a private school. Public school teaches you to discipline yourself (because if you don't care not many other people will either), and students who are motivated will do well.

 

[yg17]

A penny is too much for a high school education. I went to public school all my life and had an excellent education. As someone else mentioned, it all depends on location.

 

[CompUser]

I don't really think it matters as long as you are a good student.

I looked around at a few private schools, around here they average $25,000 + books + computer (most require) + other stuff. But quite honesty, my school was only bigger by about 25 people per grade and had just as nice, if not nicer facilities, if not nicer. My school was competing to get some award for being a good school, I am not sure if we won, but we were finalists.

My school seems pretty good, i am doing fine, and probably will this coming year. My classes are pretty small- last year I only had one big class and it was like 20 people. My science class had 14, my english class had 15, etc. This year in AP Bio there are only going to be 8 or 9 people.

I suppose it does depend on where you live, what your schools are like, and how smart the other people are.

 

[Abstract]

I don't believe in paying for high school education because in Canada, that's really not typical whatsoever. In Toronto, there really aren't too many private high schools, and I hope it stays that way. I just wouldn't want to support an educational system I didn't believe should exist. Catholic schools force students to wear a uniform, but that's about it. It's free.

There are good and bad teachers in public and private high schools, and spending (per student) on education is around the same even between private and public schools even if you went private. That's what I read anyway.

 

[Daveway]

I've gone to private schools all my life so I couldn't imagine public school.

Since I live in prodominantly Catholic area where public school aren't much to talk about, private tuition is a bit more competitive and lower.

My high school tuition comes out to about $6,000/yr.

 

[elfin buddy]

...I am not sure if we one, but we were finalists.

I sure hope you didn't win

With respect to the OP's question, I think high school education should be free, as long as the school's decent. If the school's not decent, the board of education isn't doing its job.

In Canada, at least, I got a fantastic education at a fine [public] high school. Even though it was a small and isolated school (not a great variety of courses), the staff always did their best to accommodate my ambitions, even going so far as to give me my own classroom for the AP courses I took in Level III (Grade 12). To go even further than that, the principal personally re-did the scheduling matrix for the entire school (about three hundred, spread over three levels) just to let me take the courses I wanted. Can your private school do that?

EDIT: Decided it might have been better to point out that the school of which I speak was public, not private.

 

[Lau]

I suppose it does depend on where you live, what your schools are like, and how smart the other people are.

Hmm, I just typed a massive post and then deleted it again.

I don't agree that it depends whether other kids are clever or where they're from, it depends on them being willing to learn. I also think the whole "what schools are like" debate is a shame, because I think you get sort of anti-ghettos where there's one good school, and the kids that don't get into it because of money or intelligence or just plain bad luck are really up against it, and that's so totally wrong. All schools shouldn't be identical, but I hate this siphoning off of the 'good' kids (and the 'good' parents and/or the money) and so the other schools are crap, and the kids that aren't so lucky have got an uphill struggle.

As for the paying schools debate, I'm totally against it. You're going to have to get used to people of all incomes and backgrounds when you get out there in the real world, so why not deal with it the whole way through? As I said above, if schools were a mix of all incomes, backgrounds and intelligence, everyone could learn a lot more from one another, and you wouldn't end up with these 'bad' schools, because of the mixture (and because the 'good' parents wouldn't stand for it ).

I went to a fairly rough, very mixed primary school where a lot of the kids' first language wasn't English, and I felt I learnt a lot more about people from that than the predominantly white, middle-class grammar secondary school I went to.

<deleted a massive rant here about schooling as well>

Aaaaaanyway, I'm against charging completely. Mix everyone up, because that's what happens out there in the big ol' wide world.

 

[timerollson]

I went to a public school and I'm now at a pretty damn good university.

No, I didn't go to a public school that was competitively ranked within the nation, let alone the state. It was a great experience. Of course, there were bad things, but the life lessons that I learned were amazing. The teachers, the students, the guidance counselors, principals...they did a wonderful job. I know what it's like to be around people who don't come from the same socioeconomic status. I've seen the struggle that my fellow peers and I faced and it made me open my eyes to see what else is out there. It's a beautiful thing to see the same kids I went to high school with, having faced dire circumstances, do well in life, all at the benefit of a good public school education that others would consider "ghetto" or not up to standards. Ahh well...

Of course, I'm going off what I've experienced. If I ever have kids, they're going to public school too.

 

[NEENAHBOY]

I was in the Catholic school system for most of middle school and all of high school. I did get a great education, but there's no way I would do it again if given the choice (and I was, originally). I felt totally out of place there, as the rest of the students had been together since kindergarten (which is REALLY pathetic, in retrospect).

 

[DMPDX]

Matt Groening Went to my high school (public) and look at how he turned out. So did Peter Jacobsen, Mark Rothco and Mel Blanc (who you definetly should know if you were a kid growing up watching cartoons.) They are the famous people. None the less, the teachers at our school make more money than the highest ranking private school in oregon. Money isnt everything, and in our academic scoring that is proved. Public school is good if you are or have a child that needs strict guidance etc. Public school introduces you to the world and you meet a way more diverse group f people by going to public school. You will meet the poor, the rich, and the inbetween, not to mention all of the racial diversity. In my opinion I like public school a lot better. But if you feel that the 14k is worth it then that is wonderful.
-dsm

 

[cycocelica]

I would have killed my parents if they stuck me in a private school. They have no diversity. Rich, mainly white kids. Uniforms? And 14k for year?!?! My college tuition doesn't even cost that much. Its outrageous to 14k for something that is just as good and is free. But hey to each his own.

Oh and the two people I knew that went to a private school, whiched cost 10k a year, both have children and are not attending college. Money well spent.

 

[Leareth]

I used to work as an advisor for admission and couse selection at one of the local Universities , while there were more private school kids applying and getting into university they did not do well and had about a 40% loss in the first 2 years. One thing I have found is that private schools artificially inflate grades so the majority of the students are above the 80% application cut off, the marks when looked at standard exams ( here the Provincials) actually come out lower than the public school kids. Alot of public schools have mini schools within them that help focus studies - some are open study, some arts, some fine arts and media etc. plus there are IB and AP programs too. i went to a public school and did the IB diploma program, none of my classes had more than 15 students and out of the 3,000 student in my school 450 were IB diploma.

 

[cycocelica]

The local versus public argument really comes down to where you live. If you live in an area with a great public school system, take up what you're already paying in tax dollars ...

If you live in a not so great area then I can see the discrepancy. A few of my friends went to catholic school for 12 years and their parents can't pay for their college so they're on loans now, whereas my parents have a little around to help with tuition which is always nice because I spent my days in a great public system.

I year I graduated my HS was around 600 in the newsweek thing and top for our area and to be honest they poached plenty of the local catholic teachers with higher pay and better benefits ...

I can see this as being the only case for going to a private school. Sad thing is, there are two private school within the boundaries of our school district. And our school district is very top notch and sought after. People still attend the private schools

 

[thedude110]

Ok, so ... to contradict myself.

There's a lot of presumption in this thread. Private schools are generally good schools -- kids get a lot of individual attention, they get courses taught by "experts" in their fields (lots of PhDs at private schools), and there's a lot of innovation in curriculum and its design.

When I posted what I posted above, I didn't mean to pit public and private schools against one another (I'm just not going to let statements about the supposed superiority of private schools go unchallenged).

It doesn't matter how it's funded -- when a school treats its teachers, staff and students fairly while maintaining a positive and hopeful environment, that school gets good results.

 

[Lau]

Ok, so ... to contradict myself.

There's a lot of presumption in this thread. Private schools are generally good schools -- kids get a lot of individual attention, they get courses taught by "experts" in their fields (lots of PhDs at private schools), and there's a lot of innovation in curriculum and its design.

When I posted what I posted above, I didn't mean to pit public and private schools against one another (I'm just not going to let statements about the supposed superiority of private schools go unchallenged).

It doesn't matter how it's funded -- when a school treats its teachers, staff and students fairly while maintaining a positive and hopeful environment, that school gets good results.

I agree with you – where the money comes from is totally irrelevant, and there isn't necessarily anything wrong with the standard of education from a private school.

However, I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I know in the UK the majority of kids in private schools are well off, and a lot have parents that are interested and concerned in their education. The problem I have with them is that it siphons these richer kids and their interested parents into one system, creating a kind of elite, while the 'other' kids go to the local school, and the local school gets a bad reputation, and less well-off parents send their kids there, and it gets worse and worse. There's a similar problem here with the grammar school/comprehensive school mix, where you take a test when you're 11 and if you 'pass' (5% do) you go to a grammar school, and if you 'fail' (95% don't), you go to a comprehensive. Again, it creates an artificial elite.

 

[CompUser]

Hmm, I just typed a massive post and then deleted it again.

I don't agree that it depends whether other kids are clever or where they're from, it depends on them being willing to learn. I also think the whole "what schools are like" debate is a shame, because I think you get sort of anti-ghettos where there's one good school, and the kids that don't get into it because of money or intelligence or just plain bad luck are really up against it, and that's so totally wrong. All schools shouldn't be identical, but I hate this siphoning off of the 'good' kids (and the 'good' parents and/or the money) and so the other schools are crap, and the kids that aren't so lucky have got an uphill struggle.

As for the paying schools debate, I'm totally against it. You're going to have to get used to people of all incomes and backgrounds when you get out there in the real world, so why not deal with it the whole way through? As I said above, if schools were a mix of all incomes, backgrounds and intelligence, everyone could learn a lot more from one another, and you wouldn't end up with these 'bad' schools, because of the mixture (and because the 'good' parents wouldn't stand for it ).

I went to a fairly rough, very mixed primary school where a lot of the kids' first language wasn't English, and I felt I learnt a lot more about people from that than the predominantly white, middle-class grammar secondary school I went to.

<deleted a massive rant here about schooling as well>

Aaaaaanyway, I'm against charging completely. Mix everyone up, because that's what happens out there in the big ol' wide world.

I think the quality of the high school is somewhat dependent on the other students and the number of class levels available.

Well, if you go to a school, with only 1 or 2 levels of classes, and with kids that do not want to learn, or put no effort into learning, that means the teacher has to slow down the curriculum, and possibly not teach as much. That can hold back people that actually want to learn.

(this could be related to low level high schools)
For example, in 1st grade when they were teaching us just to add I could already do multiplication. In 4th grade when they taught long multiplication I could already do basic algebra equations. In 7th grade pre-agebra I knew most of the stuff and picked up new stuff easily while other people struggled.

In a high school, with kids that don't want to learn, or are not as educated as other schools, all the a lot kids in 12th grade might be at a 10th grade reading level. That means if there is a student that really wants to excel, and is very bright, might not do as well.