Anyone here have their kids go to a charter or magnet school?

Pros and cons?

Our daughter goes to a public school now and it's bad. Kids stealing, fighting, hitting, cursing. Shame is that we don't live in a bad area. She's not the kind of kid who is used to that type of behavior and we don't wish to expose her to that type of behavior.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

For reference, this is the little girl we are trying to keep away from bullshit:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Edmond,

What grades are we talking?

I went to a magnet school for 3 years, atmosphere was great, was more challenging than public school.

The curriculum at that time was nothing like typical school, no books, subjects that required more abstract thought than just simple subjects like math, science, etc.

The only negative I found was that it didn't prepare me for typical high school. Now that's not a deal breaker and easily learned, but it was a sharp change in rhythm from 8th to 9th grade.

My grandsons went to a Catholic school. They are not Catholic, but this was (is) by far, the best school in their community (small town Ohio). The school actually gave them the opportunity to get a solid education. Discipline problems at the school were not tolerated, and were non-existent. I guess those Nuns don't put up with any nonsense.

They were both straight-A students and earned full scholarships at college. One will graduate law school this year, the other is on the road to an MD, all while putting in the time and effort to be named MVP in his college baseball league.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:

What grades are we talking?

I believe that OP's daughter is around eight or nine years old; I remember him posting a picture of her here, when she was an infant.

We don’t have any magnet or charter schools close to me but, Omaha has quite a few. I hear they are good to go.

Our Catholic schools are great around here. My daughter excelled socially, mentally, and scholarly. I don’t know about your state but, Iowa and Nebraska(my area) have done the school choice thing and that has helped families make a choice of sending their kids to a good school and help afford it.

I hear the nightmares out of the public schools and I wouldn’t send a feral rabid animal to one let alone my child or your child.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
What grades are we talking?

She's currently in 3rd grade. Looking to get her started for 4th grade in August.

Grade wise, she's always been A/B honor roll and was in a gifted and talented program a couple years ago. She wants to learn and wants to do well in school.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:
I hear the nightmares out of the public schools and I wouldn’t send a feral rabid animal to one let alone my child or your child.

Her previous 2 public schools were pretty good but one of them was in a military town. Kids are very different in those towns and different for the better.

The administration is new at her current school and they're trying to turn a bad culture around. That's great for them but my child doesn't deal well with the behavior the kids currently have. I'm sure some public schools are only used as a babysitting service during the day and pathway to prison for some of these kids.

We homeschool our kids, 1st and 4th grade. Maybe in the future if we can afford it we would send them to private Christian school but there’s no way in hell we are exposing them to the public school system. They’re also reading, writing and testing ahead of kids in their grade in public school already too.

We switched to a Cyber Charter school to start '21. When we made the switch our 3 youngest where going into 1st and our oldest into 4th, they are now in 7th and 4th. . While it's still considered a public school we are more aware of what they are learning and have more control over it. All 4 are in honors and it works great for 3 out of 4. My one youngest son is a challenge to remain focused and on task. I understand its not possible for everyone as it requires a commitment, but we've been fortunate enough that we have been able to make it happen.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:
We don’t have any magnet or charter schools close to me but, Omaha has quite a few. I hear they are good to go.

Our Catholic schools are great around here. My daughter excelled socially, mentally, and scholarly. I don’t know about your state but, Iowa and Nebraska(my area) have done the school choice thing and that has helped families make a choice of sending their kids to a good school and help afford it.

I hear the nightmares out of the public schools and I wouldn’t send a feral rabid animal to one let alone my child or your child.

I agree... and I served 6 years on the local public school board. It's not what it used to be. My daughter will homeschool or private school her kids.

Our daughter went to a charter school for elementary. It was basically a private school without paying tuition. The students wore uniforms every day with formal uniforms on Monday (shirt and tie for boys and dresses for girls). The remainder of the week, they wore pants and polos. My daughter wore jersey dresses which is basically a polo shirt that is a dress. Once a month if your grades were up and you didn't have any discipline issues, you could participate in NURD day which is Non Uniform Reward Day. Some kids had to wear uniforms on that day.
The academics are tough. I would say a year ahead of public school. There is homework every night and parents are expected to work with the kids on that homework. There are tutoring classes after school every day. They had great before and after care. In after care, the students were in the cafeteria to begin and they had to complete their homework which was checked by a teacher or a volunteer. Their daily planner was checked to make sure everything was completed, and then they were let outside to the playground. We loved the charter school, but it is a lot of work for parents and students. I feel like I went to elementary school a second time.

Bottom line is you want you kids going to a school that teaches what you believe.

I sent my oldest to public school in kindergarten. We pulled him out after 2 months for a variety of reasons. I'll mention just one. The public school system here teaches "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey starting in kindergarten.

From that point, all three of my kids have gone to a private Christian school through 8th grade. One is still in 8th grade; the other two are in a charter high school run by the local community college.

The benefit for my kids at the Christian school is/was a mostly homogeneous set of ideals between parents, students, teachers, and staff. I like to say, "We may not be on the same page, but at least we're in the same Book". The school does standardized testing, IOWA I believe, and my kids score/scored well.

One of my kids is in 8th grade while two are now in a charter high school affiliated with the local community college. They had the option of staying at the Christian school, going to the big public high school, or going to the collegiate high school. They are thriving and have a great group of friends. Going to the Christian school has not held them back in any way. We were a little worried. The public schools spend $22,000 per student per year and the Christian school spends about $9,000 per student per year.

With kids spending 7 hours a day 5 days a week at school, we came to the realization that we were not going to be able to undo what was/is being taught in the public school through the 8th grade. By high school, our kids were/are solid in their faith and ideals. Home schooling would have been the other option.

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Originally posted by xd45man:
Our daughter went to a charter school for elementary. It was basically a private school without paying tuition. The students wore uniforms every day with formal uniforms on Monday (shirt and tie for boys and dresses for girls). The remainder of the week, they wore pants and polos. My daughter wore jersey dresses which is basically a polo shirt that is a dress. Once a month if your grades were up and you didn't have any discipline issues, you could participate in NURD day which is Non Uniform Reward Day. Some kids had to wear uniforms on that day.
The academics are tough. I would say a year ahead of public school. There is homework every night and parents are expected to work with the kids on that homework. There are tutoring classes after school every day. They had great before and after care. In after care, the students were in the cafeteria to begin and they had to complete their homework which was checked by a teacher or a volunteer. Their daily planner was checked to make sure everything was completed, and then they were let outside to the playground. We loved the charter school, but it is a lot of work for parents and students. I feel like I went to elementary school a second time.

We like the uniform aspect. In one of her previous public schools, it was uniform. Made dressing her much simpler.

In terms of the homework, I'll just put it like this: one of the teachers doesn't give homework because she works a night job and doesn't have time to grade work after school.

My wife is a stay at home mom so the time is there. She also likes to volunteer at the school as she did at one of the previous schools. Just simple stuff like being a chaperone for field trips or helping out at gym time or school events. Academic wise, it's something we are willing to do and have been doing at her public schools. One of her teachers made the comment that she could tell we were involved in her education because she could see the results during class.

Our child might not go to college, that's something to think about years down the line, but we want to give her the best option of she decides to go to college. If she doesn't want to go, that's fine, we want to ensure her chances of getting into college are set up for her.

My kids went to a private academy through 6th grade. No issues except too many rich kids with their attitudes and "snotty mommies" in their gigantic suvs. Went on to public school and both have postgraduate degrees and good jobs.

There are a lot of charter schools, and a lot of them aren't great. I've learned this through experience with my daughter. Our public schools are atrocious where we live and I would never subject her to that. Unfortunately, there one phenomenal charter we've never been able to get in between 2 kids and 5 years of trying.

The one we currently are in is pretty good, except the founder just got outed for embezzling school funds for 1st class tickets, experiences, etc.

Overall, most are pretty patriotic, displaying flags and having them recite the pledge of allegiance. They aren't perfect, but significantly better than the ghetto public schools in my area.

My son has gone to a public school with a Spanish immersion program embedded in it, so.. semiprivate. We will probably be switching to catholic private school after this year- we aren’t catholic, yet they are more in line with our beliefs regarding schooling. Enough of this. Had a friend send her same age daughter to a charter school and it has not worked out well. She switched her to a public school this year.

i'm against charter schools!!

they take $$$ from public schools in my state.

if folks want their kids to go to private school, they can pay for it!!

i paid for 2 kids to go thru montessori scchools-4-12!!

Wife submitted an application for 4 schools yesterday when the application period began. It ends on the 15th of this month. They will notify us of results o/a February 15th.

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
i'm against charter schools!!

they take $$$ from public schools in my state.

if folks want their kids to go to private school, they can pay for it!!

i paid for 2 kids to go thru montessori scchools-4-12!!

Seriously? If the Charter Schools are 'taking' $$$ from public schools, that's perhaps a hint that parents think the Public Schools SUCK! Besides, tax dollars are supposed to go towards educating children anyway, NOT 'funding' schools, so wherever the student goes is where the funding should go. School choice is a good thing!

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
i'm against charter schools!!

they take $$$ from public schools in my state.

if folks want their kids to go to private school, they can pay for it!!

i paid for 2 kids to go thru montessori scchools-4-12!!

Charter schools are public. And the parents, being taxpayers, do pay for them. What distinguishes charter schools is that they are not operated by the local school district and (and this is the major driver of animus against them) often aren't beholden to teachers unions.

My kids went to a, wait for it, public Montessori school that they had to get in by lottery. They now both go to public magnet schools that they had to apply and be accepted to. All public, all funded by my taxes, and all good schools.

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Originally posted by Dallas239:
Charter schools are public. And the parents, being taxpayers, do pay for them. What distinguishes charter schools is that they are not operated by the local school district and (and this is the major driver of animus against them) often aren't beholden to teachers unions.

My kids went to a, wait for it, public Montessori school that they had to get in by lottery. They now both go to public magnet schools that they had to apply and be accepted to. All public, all funded by my taxes, and all good schools.

What we have come to learn is the charter and magnet schools have students who want to be there and the schools do not tolerate behavioral issues.

Seems like the money is better spent due to the programs at charter and magnet schools.

I'm not a fan of unions and even less of a fan of unions where taxpayer dollars are involved. Imagine bargaining against the taxpayer and begging for more money every year instead of being better with their spending.