Public vs Private in East Bay Area

I'm trying to decide whether to send my 5 year old to school in a private or public school. The public elementary has a good rep/test scores. My concern is junior high (I know it's early to worry about that but I'm trying to make the right decisions now) and the public junior highs aren't great here. We can't really afford private but we're going to work it out if that's what we decide. We also have two more younger kids that we'll have to send as well.

Parent Answers to "Public vs Private in East Bay Area"

View 4 answers: Newest-Oldest, Oldest-Newest
Display all answers

I'm going to try this year for a public school, it will the first year fo our family, we have 3 boys, the oldest attended private school since kinder to 8th. he earned a schoolorship to go to a private H.S. he'll be in10th next fall. and the two others will be in 4th and 1st, we decided to registrated them at a public school for some reason for example the two youngers are more playfull most of the time and they're less interest in study than the oldest, we help them in almost the same ways as we did with the oldest; they have differents personality of course, and that make a big different, the two yougers love to play in playgroud, they like to have a lot of friends to play with, In a private school where they were attending do not have a playground, they are a small group of student everybody knows eachother, and the discipline it's ok,
but i did not like the limitation of exploring their school like running where they can run in the playground for example, going to school library which the private school did not have. I'll see how this year go I'll try to be involve as much as I can. I hope we made a good decicion ,before registrated my kid we attend to almost all open house and activities at the public school they had like a talent show and volunteer apreciation day. I can se a lot of different some that I like and some I do'nt but most of them I like the public school. I already met the principal and talk about the changed the my two kids are going to experiments she knows about us and she welcomes us even thoug classes will start next fall.
I hope you make good decicion and try private school if you can now it wil be very good for all your family but be sure to choice one that it is really good and want to help you with the other youngers for schoolorship. so they a least can go elementary at the private and choice magnet H.S. or charter H.S or earned a schoolorschip for a private H.S . Goog luck and love, enjoy your little ones!

If your child is starting elementary, and there's a good public elementary school, save your money and go public.

There's no reason you can't switch to private when they hit junior high if you decide that's the right course. In any case, by that time you may be living in a different district for all you know, so why worry about the local junior high now?

I know I do fundamentally agree. I think it has to do with class size. I have friends & family telling me to go private because the kids sometimes get "lost in the shuffle" with such large class sizes as compared to private school. I do think involvement will create a better experience overall but as a mom of a first time school age child, I'm trying to carefully weigh options. I always thought it'd be a non-issue (we'd go public) but as we near the time for him to go I find myself questioning what is best for him.

Why do public schools get such a bad rap. Lots of my neighbors kids have been through the Berkeley system and they are now attending great universities. It's really all about your upbringing, if you will teach your child good values then they wll be successful in any environment. I wouldn't take out loans for all three of my kids. Try the schools for a year and wait and see what happens.

Any contributed content above is the subjective opinion of that member or external author, and not of GreatSchools. GreatSchools does not check for accuracy in community posts or verify the contributor’s identity. If you are searching for health-related advice we strongly suggest you seek professional medical support. View our Community Guidelines for more details.

Local Q&A

Top cities

Los Angeles	Phoenix
Houston	San Diego
Chicago	Dallas
San Jose	San Antonio
New York	Miami

Browse questions about

Local Q&A is brand new! What do you think? Give us your feedback in our feedback forum.