Public School vs. Catholic School

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MysticMissMisty

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As I understand it, the Church does not have a particular teaching directly addressing the question, so, I am asking this community. Generally: Is it better to send Catholic kids to Catholic school or public school? (In this post, we are leaving all other kinds of schools out of the picture) Please defend your answer

In addition:
Is the answer something you think should apply in all cases to all Catholic children?
Or, should it be applied on a case-by-case basis?

If applicable and you wish to answer, do you personally send your kids to Catholic or public school?

(For the record, I am not a parent, but wish to be one in the future. I am not a Catholic, but am seriously thinking about converting.)

Thanks in advance.
 
I think it’s something that has to be decided on a case by case basis. For example, a Catholic child with special needs may not be able to find a Catholic school with the ability to support their needs and would absolutely be better off in a public school that can. Even a Catholic child without special needs may be better served in a public school if the Catholic school is teaching watered down Catholicism or barely teaching Catholicism at all (though I’m not sure how common that is).

I do have children and they attend public school. In our case, it’s due to financial reasons and an unwillingness to limit the size of our family in order to use Catholic schools.
 
Depends on the quality of the school.
Some public schools are real good, while some public schools are not.
I like the idea of children being exposed to people who are not Catholic in order to get different ideas.
The cost of tuition to most Catholic schools is expensive.
On the other hand, it is nice for Catholic children to be exposed to Catholic doctrine all the time…
As for your converting to the Catholic Church, I would say 👍
 
Sorry, this is not what you were asking but may be something to consider. If you dont want your child to be vaccinated, you may not have a choice anymore depending on which state you live in. Some states are not allowing religious exemptions (from getting vaccinated) anymore, if your child attends a public school.
 
If your child has some sort of special need as one of mine did, you have no choice. Private schools don’t have the resources to educate a special needs child almost without exception.

Special needs aside, it’s also why private schools tend to outperform public schools on standardized testing. They probably dont get any better instruction, but the public school has to take everyone while the private school gets those kids with more money and parental involvement. In short, they get to compete with a favorably edited deck.

Send your kids to the public school and just be involved in their lives.
 
littlebird said:
. If you dont want your child to be vaccinated, you may not have a choice anymore depending on which state you live in. Some states are not allowing religious exemptions (from getting vaccinated) anymore, if your child attends a public school.
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This may also be true of Catholic schools. Ours don’t allow that, (thankfully) even though our state does.
 
This really has to be on a case by case basis, because the quality of the schools in question has to be taken into consideration, as well as the needs of the family and individual child. I don’t hold the local Catholic schools in high esteem. I firmly believe that the main purpose of Catholic schools in my area is to continue racial segregation legally through the “private school loophole”. This is not Catholic in any way and I have no use for it. Furthermore, the cost of tuition for these exclusive schools would only allow me to send one or two children at most, and I do all right financially. If I have to choose between giving my children a parish school or siblings, I think siblings will go further.
 
MysticMissMisty said:
As I understand it, the Church does not have a particular teaching directly addressing the question, so, I am asking this community. Generally: Is it better to send Catholic kids to Catholic school or public school?
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Actually, the Church has quite a bit to say about this question.

From the documents of Vatican II:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_...decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

“The Council also reminds Catholic parents of the duty of entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible and of supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children.”

The Code of Canon Law on Catholic Education:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib3-cann793-821_en.html

“Can. 798 Parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide a Catholic education. If they are unable to do this, they are obliged to take care that suitable Catholic education is provided for their children outside the schools.”

Documents from the Congregation for Catholic Education:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/index.htm

See these, among others:
The Catholic School (1977)
The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997)
 
The more the family is practicing the more they will send their children in Catholic school, if there is any available for them.

What points I see to discern if necessary:

1: If the school has a any Catholic identity: for eg, if they offered cathecism or nothing? Does she support actions that are controversed or a problem to Church teaching?

2: Material thing. Cost. If the prices prevents the family to send them in?
Transportation? If a personal car is needed and the family don’t have a car? for eg
Meal time? Is lunch should be taken in the school because of distance instead at home in a public school?

3: Is the catholic families send their children to this school? if yes, a good sign. Is this school is the right place to help you to raise good Catholic children? It is the most important point.
  1. special need children. Which school is the better for a child with a particularity?
I don’t send my child to any school, Catholic or public. I prefered, by far, to homeschooled myself.
 
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“Quality” of schools is a complex thing. It’s not determined by many of the things we think, like extreme computer use or complex scheduling.

A great deal of it is determined by the determination (a/k/a dedication) of the teachers and the school administration itself. I remember going to Catholic grade school when there were three classes in one room. The sisters who taught had little in the way of resources other than outdated texts, blackboards, chalk and their own dedication. And yet, when we went to public school for high school, we were well ahead of the kids who had had a lot more in the way of resources.

But it’s true that when my children went to Catholic school, the teaching of the faith was very, very weak, almost nonexistent.

I do not accept that Catholic schools are purposed to continue segregation. Not many black people are Catholics, but in some inner cities where vouchers were available, the majority of the students were black and non-Catholic. Obama didn’t like that, so he ended the programs that supported it.

In my part of the country, the “minorities” are Hispanic or Asian because there are almost no blacks here. Asians do attend Catholic school here. Hispanics do, but not in their numbers because of the cost. Their number, however, is increasing as the prosperity level of Hispanics is improving. But probably half the “white” Catholic kids don’t go to Catholic schools either. Some of that is due to cost, but a lot is due to the (awful) belief that somehow socialization (with people just like them) and “activities” are all-important.

My grandchildren all attend Catholic schools, and I think its a far better education and in more than mere academics.
 
Where I live, it’s the exact opposite. There are black and Hispanic Catholics, but they are unwelcome in Catholic schools. Catholic schools prefer to take non-Catholic, white children from outside their parish, as long someone is writing a check. I realize that it isn’t like that everywhere and it hasn’t always been like that here either. Just in the generations since desegregation.
 
As someone who attends public school from my experience it depends if your kids are well grounded in there faith you can send them but if they are not then don’t. However this applies to some catholic schools too. Where I am from most of them don’t teach the faith I know of one that has a 15 minute optional religion class. I would say your best option is homeschool the kids if you can or if you can find a good catholic school then send them there.
 
I don’t know where you live, and I’m not asking. But it is true that Catholic schools around here will take just about anybody whose parents will pay for it. On the other hand, some of the Catholic schools around here are pretty inexpensive relatively speaking. It’s $1,000/year in the ones to which my grandchildren go. There are not many blacks in the Ozarks, and none at all in the immediate vicinity in which I live. But the number of Hispanics in the Catholic schools is growing and they’re welcome.

I will admit that not many protestants send their kids to Catholic school. The fundamentalists have their own schools, and there are a lot of them. Mormons do like sending their children to Catholic schools, though, at least around here. They dont’ have their own schools and don’t seem much to believe in having them.

One has to realize, though, that most “Hispanics” are pretty “white” in every way, and in some parts of the country, the “whites” are at least somewhat “Mexicanized”. I live very near to Oklahoma and it’s not far to Texas. Those areas have had Mexicans forever, and they’re part of the population without anybody thinking too much about it. As I understand it, northern Mexico is pretty “Anglicized” too.

Central Americans are a different thing. For one thing, they don’t have the money Mexicans do.
 
Send your children where they’ll get the best opportunities.
We offered our oldest daughter the option to attend the Catholic high school. She shadowed there for a day, and her conclusion was that it was “school.” No different from regular school.

That, and the fact that the school offered no financial assistance at all, made the decision easy. She stayed in public school.

Ironically, of the three families in our neighborhood that sent their kids to the Catholic high school—-two are not Catholic and the third is non-practicing (nearly anti-) Catholic.
 
My wife went to Catholic school k-12 and she knows more about Catholicism than I do, but I think if it weren’t for her being married to me, she’d probably not be going to Church all that often.

Her sister went to Catholic school until high school. She became an atheist and then converted to Judaism.

Your mileage may vary.
 
on_the_hill said:
Ironically, of the three families in our neighborhood that sent their kids to the Catholic high school—-two are not Catholic and the third is non-practicing (nearly anti-) Catholic.
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I think there’s a lot of this. But I think there’s a lot of it among kids who go to public school too. In all cases, it seems to me the problem is poor catechesis in the schools and, most importantly, in the home.
 
Hume said:
If your child has some sort of special need as one of mine did, you have no choice. Private schools don’t have the resources to educate a special needs child almost without exception.
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Again, this is a case by case thing. My child is in a Catholic school precisely because of special needs, and the school has gone out of their way (even hiring extra staff) to accommodate. As a former public school teacher, my child never would have stood a chance at the growth we’ve seen if stuck in that setting.

You really have to weigh out the options that are available to you.
 
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Do you mean my second post?

I probably should’ve added that my in-laws are stout staunch Catholics.
 
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