Bringing back an old favorite with our “Comment Du Jour”, because sometimes we simply can’t say it as well as our readers. This comment from Caroline SF on our recent post, It’s Less Expensive And More Environmentally Friendly To Live In The City, We Have Proof, is so good that we absolutely have to let you all in on her thoughts:
I have a college freshman and a high school sophomore who have gone all the way through SFUSD schools.
Only the uninformed (well, and perhaps those who don’t want their kids sitting next to “those” people in class) believe that San Francisco parents “need” to send their kids to private schools.
Of course we do have many friends who do and have sent their kids private, and there is simply no discernable difference in the quality of their education vs. the quality of my kids’ education. Basically they spent $150,000-$200,000 per kid for the same thing we got for free — a solid K-12 education. They chose to do that for whatever reasons of their own, but they didn’t “need” to do it.
Touche!
–It’s Less Expensive And More Environmentally Friendly To Live In The City, We Have Proof [theFrontSteps]
I’d agree with that if it were not for the lottery that the SFUSD uses. Your kid may end up fine, but you take a much greater risk in SF due to the lottery system.
I am going through this now with finding a school for my kids and as a product of the SFUSD I feel I am entitled to say that you may be fine with elementary school here, but it gets dicey as you go to middle and high school. Did you see the test scores in the Examiner in September? It only gets worse as you move to middle school and high school with the exception of Lowell. How many are going to win the lottery and get into good ones twice? Not many! Additionally, the education isn’t exactly free now is it? It is paid for by property and income taxes. Doesn’t seem like a good bang for the buck based on how much input and the number of fundraisers the schools need from the community to buy the basics for classrooms. Something isn’t working right and I am uninclined to wait and see if it gets better while my kid misses out (if we can’t get into a school that makes sense and isn’t across town). From what I am looking at, we could send our kid to Catholic school (you don’t have to be Catholic to go) for about $5500 a year. That’s half of what preschool costs at this point. Seems like a bargain and their test scores are good as well. To each their own but some people can know from experience that public may be good, but certainly isn’t always the case.
We went through the lottery program for SFUSD. Despite living within 50 feet of one of the best elementary schools in the city, my kid was assigned to a school ranked in the bottom 100 of 5000 schools statewide, where an amazing 15% of the kids manage to read at grade level, 85% are below. Its gets a 1 out of 10 ranking – horrible.
Would you send your kid there if you had any way to afford not to? SFUSD may be fine if you win the lottery, but not everyone does. This is not about who my kid sits next to, its about getting them a halfway decent education.
hey, it worked for me. the rest of you must be idiots.