Letting go of private school?
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| Thu, 08-21-2008 - 11:47am |
Hello everyone,
As I've shared before, my kids attend a private Lutheran school. Grandparents have been paying the tuition. Remember me? I'm the one who was facing an $1800 hole each month! Well things have gotten better for us, I am getting my home daycare license and dh got a new job making almost twice as much as his old job(and still a little more than his old job + second job). So now that we're making more ourselves, we feel we should take over paying our kids school tuition. DH really likes the religious education side, but I see more of the snooty rich people side since I'm in the school more. I've started to become disillusioned with the whole private school thing, and huge tuition payments is part of it. But my older son just loves his school, and when I think about pulling him out, it makes me sad for him. I wish I'd just sent him to public school for kindergarten! (he's in 2nd now) I'm hoping others will have some "been there, done that" stories about switching from private to public school. I think we will not make a change until after Christmas the earliest, or next school year since here we are at the start of school already. It's just really bothering me right now.
Thanks!
Anne

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Thanks for your reply. Gosh, I would love to really start "living within our means." And honestly I never really thought about my son's academic performance, it's all about social/emotional ties. I've read others post on here about how they hate cutting their kids activities out of the budget, because it feels like they are punishing their kids for their financial mistakes. Well, that's pretty much how I feel! But I also realize the huge emotional piece here and that's what is hard to overcome.
Anne
Hi Anne,
I understand that you feel you and your husband should start paying for private school now that your finances are better, but if you are still at a point when taking over the payment is causing you to consider pulling your son from school, maybe it isn't time to take that on. If you weren't conflicted, I'd say go for it, but you are and maybe that means now is not the time ton consider it.
For the record, I've moved twice with my kids and adjusting has been tough, but we're in a great public school district and both have made great strides in their learning. Three of my six siblings started out in the Catholic school setting (my parents were in a phase, we like to say) and blossomed once they transferred to public. It wasn't so much the academics but the socialization. Snobbery exists everywhere (my kids' school is full of it), but it seems to breed in the private school settings.
Good luck!
Meredith
They call it TICKER POWER
Mary Ann
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