The Shifting School Equation
There wasn’t room to discuss it yesterday, but we suspect the public/private school issue is on a number of people’s minds. Over the weekend, The Times ran an article about the number of people who bought their apartments in recent years with the assumption that they would send their kids to private school. Now that…
There wasn’t room to discuss it yesterday, but we suspect the public/private school issue is on a number of people’s minds. Over the weekend, The Times ran an article about the number of people who bought their apartments in recent years with the assumption that they would send their kids to private school. Now that the economic downturn has made that a more difficult proposition, they are left to confront the limitations of their own school district. In some cases, parents are even considering renting a cheap apartment within a good school district just to get access—after all, it would be cheaper than the $30,000+ tuition in Manhattan. (It’s more like $25,000 here in Brooklyn.) Question for the renters and those in the market to buy in Brooklyn: Has the school issue shifted your real estate plans since the downturn began?
The Sudden Charm of Public School [NY Times]
Photo by Steve and Sara
Good luck to you and yours. We have a relatively large brood ourselves…
bxgrl: Are you kidding? She’s sitting right here getting the play-by-play and totally siding with everyone who thinks academics are key in first grade! We have to do something to pass time. (she really does disagree with me on a lot of this stuff)
Architerrorist: Sorry you had to move out of the city. That must have been a big adjustment. Best of luck to you and your family.
no straw man- go back and reread.
fsrq: I agree entirely. Why would that burn me up? You mean I must be annoyed by all the money I spent on law school when I could have spent $100 on bar prep materials and be the same lawyer I am now? The bar is a limited-entry cartel that enables its members to earn more money than they would in an open access system. I had to pay the entry fee to be entitled to my cut of the excess profits from the limited access system. Would we all be better off if we went to an open access system? Quite possibly. The current system churns out thousands of lawyers who are exceptional only for their parents’ ability to continue to fund their education, and who could just as easily be administrators or claims adjusters. An open access system might attract brighter minds to the profession. To be pretty frank, I don’t see lawyers as any more skilled than plumbers and electricians. We just happen to work with words instead of tools. It’s not like we’re doctors or anything… that’s a profession that truly does require years of specialized education.
i see a lot of comments responding to the argument that childless people aren’t entitled to opinions on education. which is great, except that no one is making that argument. congratulations on beating up the straw man!
“don’t have to necessarily graduate from high school to attend a 4-year college.”
OK, I get it. That makes sense.
Lechacel –
I actually would have preferred my daughter take Spanish – I took French (and German and Latin), and thought Spanish would be a far more useful choice in NYC. But it was her choice, and I’m glad she’s had the opportunity to follow her heart. She’s actually visiting Paris for the firt time as I type this (we’re not wealthy, we just have air miles, and yes, we’re lucky in many respects).
Last year, due to the economic crisis, my family was forced to move out of NYC. We had never thought for a minute that we would live elsewhere. I was willing to put up with MS issues and fight the system, give my time, make the effort, etc.. so that my kids could have the benefits of growing up in one of the greatest cities on earth. It never occurred to me to leave.
We now live in Northern Westchester, pay the school taxes (not much more than our NYC taxes, btw), and I have to admit, I am really shocked by the quality of the education my middle schooler is receiving. 14 kids in her ELA class. Kids have a wide choice of languages. Tons of after school programs, door-to-door transportation, fresh air, sunshine, etc… It’s all wonderful, but I still feel that she’s missing something, something I deeply wanted for her, as a child of Brooklyn – diversity, experience, sophistication, etc… Did I want it at the expense of her education? I don’t know. Maybe I did. I didn’t make the choice to leave NYC, it was made for me. Was it the right thing for my children – yes and no.
lechacal- good luck with the new impending jacklet! (Boy- I hope your wife doesn’t find out you’re on b’stoner while she’s in labor)
“These days you have to graduate from an ABA-accredited law school to sit for the NY bar.”
Lechacal given your dismissal of the benefits of an excellent elementary education – this has to burn you up…. I mean lets be honest here – A set of Emanuels and a 3mo Bar-Bari class is all you really need to pass the bar – or be a lawyer [seriously no sarcasm intended]