This weekend, we attended a Kindergarten Panel Discussion to kick off what is going to be a long and arduous process of choosing where we will send Elise and Lucas to school. Now I realize that if you don't live in this area you probably think that we are completely insane to be thinking about kindergarten right now considering that we have two more years until Elise (and five more years until Lucas) will even go into school. And for the majority of people, it's not a dilemma so much as it is a registration day. You go to your neighborhood school and sign your kid up. Process complete.
Unfortunately, living where we live it's not anywhere near that simple. The public school that our kids are slated to go to does not have a good reputation. And by not good reputation I mean that it is a (alleged) borderline disaster. And it is only borderline because they got a new principal two years ago who is really great and is working to turn things around. Even while in the process of being turned though, it is a poorly funded, urban school (K-8) where everyone scores badly on tests, very few parents are involved and people get mugged in the hallways. Ok, no one is getting mugged in the hallways (at least not in the elementary school but the local high school that does actually happen) but from what we have heard it's just not a good school. We still plan to check it out to see for ourselves, but this situation presents a real problem. This has been excruciating for us since the day we bought our house - years before we even had children - to think that we may not be able to stomach sending our children to our local public school. We believe in public school and we want to support it. But do we believe in it so much we are willing to sacrifice our child's education as a statement?
So here are our other options:1. Other Public School - There is another local public school in our neighborhood that is decent and has a lot of parent involvement. The test scores indicate that the lower grades are significantly more diverse and stronger than the upper grades (because the parent association only gathered strength about 8 years ago). It's not the best school that ever was but it has many things going for it. First and foremost, it is a public school. And it would be free. As I said above, Marty and I believe in public schools, are the products of public school and don't want to be one of the hundreds of educated families in our neighborhood that weakens the overall strength of public schools by not participating in the system. That said, isn't fun when your principles smack right up against your child's education and future? In addition, we'd be leaving our catchment area for a school that everyone agrees is stronger, more diverse and has an extensive parental organization already in place. I admire the first families who put their foot down in their neighborhood and said, 'No more! We are going to fight for our school.' They did - and we would be- benefiting from their stand. Should we do the same with the school near us?
2. Charter Schools - Charter schools are very similar to public schools in that they are chartered and funded by the school district. They are, technically, public schools. And they are free. The difference is that admission is done through a (supposedly) random lottery process. You could role the dice and win, but just as easily you could get your heart set on something and not be selected. There are some great charters and there are some really bad ones, just like public schools, but there are a few pretty good charter schools near our home. The two charters that we are most interested in both have rigorous curricula based in the environment. Both have kids spending a lot 
of time outside and both have pretty good and rising test scores. We have some neighbors who have kids in these schools and they are really happy.Quick note about test scores... at this point we have not had a chance to go to any Open Houses, talk to any teachers/admin staff or see how Elise feels at the school. So we only have reputations, websites and test scores to go on. They are important as indicators go, but certainly not what we will solely make decisions based on.
3. Private Schools - These are the schools with fancy after school programs, dream test scores, and amazing curriculum and enrichment
activities. But the biggest strike against this option, of course, is that they are not free. There is quite a wide range as to how not free they are. There are several Quaker and Co-Op Schools which are somewhat reasonable (and by somewhat reasonable I mean roughly the same ridiculously expensive cost as daycare). And there are also a handful of "options" that aren't really options because they cost MORE than TWICE as much as an entire year of my college education (which included room and board and was out of state tuition). The nuttiest thing about private schools is not actually the cost, but the process of trying to get you child into one. Again, it's not as 
simple as writing a ginormous check and registering your kid. Oh, no. There are tests. Lots and lots of tests. Yes, for your four year old. Pretty much all the schools have some kind of aptitude test, motor skills test, interview, essay application and "play date" observations where they evaluate your child as she interacts with other kids. Some schools even require that your child has a one-on-one evaluation with a psychologist. This whole process seems stressful and ridiculous. And you have to pay for each application (just like college). You can apply for financial aid (just like college) which can lessen the price tag but you have to go through the lengthy financial aid process for each school you apply to. Urgh.
4. Scrap all of the options and Move - Of course it does come up in conversation from time to time that we could just move to a place in a better school district. The trouble with that, of course, is that while we'd probably be more happy with the public school system, we'd most certainly be less happy with the location. We do not want to live in the suburbs. We love living in the city. We are city people. This may sound a little selfish, but really our kids are city kids too. They hate being in the car. They love doing City Things. Besides, we love our house. We love our commute. We love our neighbors. We do not want to move. We would
have to find an amazing house in an amazing town in an amazing school district for this to happen.So that's where we are. Applications for the schools (including applying for a transfer to a different public school) are due the fall before kindergarten. Which means that we have to make a decision by this time next year. A year may seem like a long time, but it will fly. I mean, wasn't Lucas just born? So we are planning to attend a few Open Houses and site visits in the coming weeks to get the ball rolling. Hopefully we will at least be able to eliminate some options and begin to realistically take things like cost, logistics, etc into consideration.
Soooo....Let the games begin!
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