And thank you for making it clear that choice has to be purchased.
Education can be as much about whom your children sit beside as what they learn, said Christopher Lubienski, a University of Illinois professor. A study he released this year reported that, once demographic characteristics are controlled for, fourth- and eighth-graders in public school performed as well as or better than students at private schools on math tests.
“In a sense, you’re not purchasing a type of school,” Mr. Lubienski said. “You’re purchasing a peer group who your kid goes to school with.”
Relax, It’s Just Preschool
By HILLARY CHURA
DON’T tell anyone, but my husband and I plan to send our toddler to a public prekindergarten program.
It’s not just the outrageous cost — about $17,000 a year for a 4-year-old to learn his letters, or more on a per-pound basis than Harvard. Our neighborhood public schools on Manhattan’s Upper East Side are some of the finest in the city (a factor when we relocated) and we just don’t think exclusive for the sake of exclusive is necessary. Still, the fear is that you really do get what you pay for, and no parent wants to gamble with their child’s future.
With the emphasis on early childhood development, many parents who hear of our decision, nod, say “ohhh,” and position themselves between their children and our son. It’s as if we are dooming our first-born and his 7-month-old brother to a lifetime of wanton mediocrity instead of paving their way into the joint M.D.-Ph.D.-law programs of their choice.
It’s not that my husband and I are opposed to expensive education. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree from Yale. My parents lived on lentils for four years so I could attend Smith College. Short of buying the right scratch-and-win ticket or having a generous uncle take care of us, we will do the same for our sons should they go that route.
So I sought confirmation that our sons’ college diplomas would not depend on their prekindergarten pedigree.
“People can look too far down the road,” said Cynthia Bing, head of school advisory services at the Parents League of New York, which counsels parents primarily interested in nonpublic schools. Harvard’s dean of admissions, “is never going to ask where your child went to preschool or elementary school,” she said. Phew. So maybe it is O.K. to use the savings during the 13 years in question to expose our sons to Mandarin or Spanish language classes, music and sports as well as interesting educational trips, fun experiences and supporting our school’s parents’ association.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
Hmmm. Saw this piece in
Hmmm. Saw this piece in Saturday's NYTimes and I felt the writer was being a bit disingenous.First, she pointed out she and her lived in the very exclusive upper East side in Manhattan and unless you are really 'wealthy' this neighborhood is not for 'fakers'. Mortgages and rents in this area, especially for the past new years, because of appreciating real estate, would be brutal for ANYONE not independently wealthy. And, as such, if you are not, in a true sense, wealthy, you would, indeed, be looking a "Public School" because your living overhead would be outrageous.  Second, she made the excuse or intimated that she wanted her children to be in a more diverse environment. Huh! Let me tell ya. The upper Eastside of Manhattan is not as diverse, in terms of poor and minorities, as she is attempting to make it. Unless of course, you're talking about the West Indian and, increasingly, Hispanic and Asian nannies, maids and Buildings supers. And the minorities there are more lilke to send their kids to the private schools.  So the whole gist of her piece, in my reading of it, was basicially a mea cupa of sorts, like that of many of the folks, like herself, have over extended themselves into lifestyles that are not sustainable in this increasingly global and competitive economy and its current retraction. We're seeing the same overextended model in some of the folks who "gentrified Harlem" being saddled with these million dollar or more mortgages. Now, because of the changing real estate market and ARMs, are finding making those monthly monster notes ain't no joke! Eating and other essentials becomes a real effort so to speak. Anyway, I susect we will over the next few months will see more of the same pieces. Perhaps Hillary will save them.