Private Schools are hurting Public Schools

[MetFan]

The argument for private schools is that the education and athletics is better. Maybe the argument for public schools is that if Private schools didn't exist then public schools, and therefore the community, would be much better with the added support of those students/families/boosters/fundraisers.

 

Maybe so but these people obviously left for a reason. Why would you leave to pay for something that you could get for free? If all the privates came back, who would pay the enormous cost? In Madison county we have about 2500 in K-12 as private school students. The Jackson Sun carried a report a few weeks ago that we were one of the highest districts in the state in per/pupil spending for public education ($8,500 per student). Do you know what would happen if 2500 kids suddenly enrolled next year? Can we say "massive tax increase"? By my math that would be an additional 21.25 million dollars per year needed in an already overblown budget. Anyone that pays taxes should hug the next private school parent they meet for keeping their taxes low.

[westtnman]

Larry,

 

I would submit you have the cart before the horse. Most of the small privates are Christian schools that started because of a deep dissatisfaction with the anti-Christian direction much of public education was headed in. Note that most small privates are in or near major metro areas where the public schools perform very poorly, are crime ridden, and have little or no community identity left as kids from all over are bussed in.

 

The small privates are in large part an attempt in the cities to get the small school sense of community and values that the smaller rural schools have by virtue of their location. That is one reason why even though the TSSAA has punished them repeatedly they still cling to DI. Believe it or not as much as many of the small publics dislike the small privates, the small privates are much more similar to rural publics than they are to the elite preps or the larger metro publics. Similar kids, similar values. If I lived in a rural county I would happily let my children attend a small public school. I don't, and neither do 3.5 million other Tennesseeans. For some of us, the financial burden of tuition is well worth the safety, academic performance, sense of family, and religious values that small privates offer. None of that is available in our metro system. If you live in a rural area with small schools count yourself blessed, you get much of what we have to pay for for free.

 

 

 

Now that is a great post. I agree 100%. I grew up in a small rural community of less than 1,000 people and our private school is as close to a community as I can find without moving back. I would have no problem at all having my child in public school in my hometown, but private is the best option for us here.

[MetFan]

Larry,

 

I would submit you have the cart before the horse. Most of the small privates are Christian schools that started because of a deep dissatisfaction with the anti-Christian direction much of public education was headed in. Note that most small privates are in or near major metro areas where the public schools perform very poorly, are crime ridden, and have little or no community identity left as kids from all over are bussed in.

 

The small privates are in large part an attempt in the cities to get the small school sense of community and values that the smaller rural schools have by virtue of their location. That is one reason why even though the TSSAA has punished them repeatedly they still cling to DI. Believe it or not as much as many of the small publics dislike the small privates, the small privates are much more similar to rural publics than they are to the elite preps or the larger metro publics. Similar kids, similar values. If I lived in a rural county I would happily let my children attend a small public school. I don't, and neither do 3.5 million other Tennesseeans. For some of us, the financial burden of tuition is well worth the safety, academic performance, sense of family, and religious values that small privates offer. None of that is available in our metro system. If you live in a rural area with small schools count yourself blessed, you get much of what we have to pay for for free.

 

 

Great post. I missed it earlier.

[BuckLateral]

Anyone that pays taxes should hug the next private school parent they meet for keeping their taxes low.

 

 

Metfan; You might rephrase that to say:

 

Anyone that pays taxes should hug the next private school parent they meet for keeping their taxes low and for paying their share of the taxes that keep the public schools running even though their children do not attend them.

[fiftyfifty]

Metfan; You might rephrase that to say:

 

Anyone that pays taxes should hug the next private school parent they meet for keeping their taxes low and for paying their share of the taxes that keep the public schools running even though their children do not attend them.

 

I guess you could thank them. But I assure you if we didn't have to pay them, most of us if not all would not pay for something we don't use. Unless of course, the public school parents started contributing to the private schools for their contribution to society. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

[fiftyfifty]

Larry,

 

I would submit you have the cart before the horse. Most of the small privates are Christian schools that started because of a deep dissatisfaction with the anti-Christian direction much of public education was headed in. Note that most small privates are in or near major metro areas where the public schools perform very poorly, are crime ridden, and have little or no community identity left as kids from all over are bussed in.

 

The small privates are in large part an attempt in the cities to get the small school sense of community and values that the smaller rural schools have by virtue of their location. That is one reason why even though the TSSAA has punished them repeatedly they still cling to DI. Believe it or not as much as many of the small publics dislike the small privates, the small privates are much more similar to rural publics than they are to the elite preps or the larger metro publics. Similar kids, similar values. If I lived in a rural county I would happily let my children attend a small public school. I don't, and neither do 3.5 million other Tennesseeans. For some of us, the financial burden of tuition is well worth the safety, academic performance, sense of family, and religious values that small privates offer. None of that is available in our metro system. If you live in a rural area with small schools count yourself blessed, you get much of what we have to pay for for free.

 

I disagree with most of your post, but I will compliment you on being diplomatic. I would think that any poster over forty would have a hard time agreeing with your reasoning of why private schools started in early, middle, late seventies and early eighties. I wish also that Catholic schools would always be an exception in discussion of privates as they started way before the seventies, sixties, fifties, etc. I hope you are not one of those Christians that think Catholics are not Christians, you know there are some. And finally I wish that all of you could have attended the re-union celebration of Ryan Vs Pearl,a game that took place many years ago. Actually I believe it was the first game between blacks and whites in Tennessee, if not it was one of the first. It took place at the Municipal Auditorium and about 8 thousand people attended. Hugh crowd for that era. It was the only game Pearl lost in about a three year period. We had the reunion at halftime of a basketball game a couple of years ago, dinner, all the old players that could be rounded up and everyone had a great time. Why do I mention this? Because this demostrates the dramatic difference in some private schools with other private schools, all of whom call themselves Christian. Blessings to all. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

[Baldcoach]

I disagree with most of your post, but I will compliment you on being diplomatic. I would think that any poster over forty would have a hard time agreeing with your reasoning of why private schools started in early, middle, late seventies and early eighties. I wish also that Catholic schools would always be an exception in discussion of privates as they started way before the seventies, sixties, fifties, etc. I hope you are not one of those Christians that think Catholics are not Christians, you know there are some. And finally I wish that all of you could have attended the re-union celebration of Ryan Vs Pearl,a game that took place many years ago. Actually I believe it was the first game between blacks and whites in Tennessee, if not it was one of the first. It took place at the Municipal Auditorium and about 8 thousand people attended. Hugh crowd for that era. It was the only game Pearl lost in about a three year period. We had the reunion at halftime of a basketball game a couple of years ago, dinner, all the old players that could be rounded up and everyone had a great time. Why do I mention this? Because this demostrates the dramatic difference in some private schools with other private schools, all of whom call themselves Christian. Blessings to all. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

 

 

St,

 

You said you disagreed with most of my post, but you didn't tell me which parts you disagreed with. And I'm not ignorant of the history of Catholic schools...they go waaay back...in fact, you could make a historical argument that they predate the United States. They certainly predate US Public Ed. I don't think that that precludes other Christian groups from starting their own Christian schools though. And I'm not sure why a recent date or a distant date makes one school more or less legitimate than another.

 

If you are using the tired old argument that the small privates started in response to desegregation I can tell you I don't buy it. There were plenty of elite privates in existence during desegregation for those who were prejudiced to retreat to. Besides, the vast majority of small Christian Schools' startup dates simply don't fit the argument. Here in Chattanooga Boyd started in 1952...well before desegregation occurred. The next nearest is CCS which began about 1980, well after all of that was over with. In Nashville the startup dates of many schools match up with the initial population explosion and 'metroization' of the system when the neighborhood schools were torn down and replaced with gigantic metro schools better than they match up with the Civil Rights Movement.

 

You seem to be bitter about the small privates for some reason. I'd be interested to hear why.

 

p.s. Thanks for the diplomatic thing /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> (and I am over 40, but as Indiana Jones says, "It's not the age, it's the mileage.")

[4warriors]

Except for Catholic schools which have been in existence for hundreds of years. The reason for Catholic schools has nothing to do whatsoever with social situations in one century or another. As long as schools exist, there will be Catholic schools. A Catholic school has more tasks then just simply educating a child. And I could not disagree more with the theory that private schools are hurting public schools. There are various reasons why adding private school students to public schools would not work, one reason is that the public schools can not handle the number of students that they have now, much less the addition of thousands of students from private schools. Private schools will be here always. I still find it interesting how the topic starter didn't seem to be talking about a sports issue in particular, but the posts following are a mixture of social issues and sports. As I have posted many times, no issue can be discussed on this issue without covering all factors and there are dozens, not just sports. If fifty private school parents were to be added to a school of lets say two thousand, your result would probably be just a longer list of frustrated parents that are wondering if their tax dollars are being spent in the best way. This suggestion about parents also suggests that there is a great difference between private and public school parents, this is largely false. Most private school parents only want what every parent wants, the best education and chance for their children to be successful in life. If anybody thinks differently, then go and sit down in the middle of a group of private school parents and you will see that their conversation is usually dominated by talk of their children. I have had many pleasant conversations with parents from various public schools and there is no fundamental difference at all other than where our children attend school. /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Big, big ditto-I grew up in public schools, my sister and father-in-law are public school teachers. We put our four kids in a private school so we could find a system that shared our values/faith, smaller school setting, etc.

[Indian]

Except for probably part of the Science curriculum, what are public schools missing as far as religion goes?

[MetFan]

Except for probably part of the Science curriculum, what are public schools missing as far as religion goes?

 

If you don't already know, you probably never will. Nice jab about the science. LOL.

[Baldcoach]

Except for probably part of the Science curriculum, what are public schools missing as far as religion goes?

 

 

Indian,

 

Since your public is a small rural public about the only difference is a greater spiritual emphasis and more academic accountability because the parents are paying. But remember that in the big metro areas there are NO small, community based publics. That is what seperates the small privates from the metro publics...they are big, impersonal, have high crime rates, and no sense of community in general (always exceptions). That is why most of the small privates are in metro areas...they are the alternative.

 

p.s. I've been saying for years that the small privates are more similar to the rural small publics than either are to metro publics or elite preps.

[Indian]

A greater emphasis doesn't mean an absence.