Hacker News Reader

Comment by manfredo | Hacker News Reader

No, they aren't. The average private school tuition is about $10k a year [1]. Ones affiliated with religious institutions like Catholic schools often offer subsidized tuition for lower income people. It's within reach for a sizable portion of the middle class. In many states, private school tuition is tax deductible.

Granted, cheaper private schools are more common in the less affluent areas (namely, the South) where it's essentially taken for granted that the moderately well off and above send their kids to private schools. If you're from a wealthy coastal city with public schools good enough that the wealthy are comfortable sending their kids there, then it's understandable why some may associate private schools as being more exclusive to the upper class.

1. https://www.privateschoolreview.com/tuition-stats/private-sc...

View on HN

Median household income in the US is $65k. $10k/year/ child is not affordable for most households.

You also mention religious schools. Why should a person have to indoctrinated in a religion to receive a good education?

> Median household income in the US is $65k. $10k/year/ child is not affordable for most households.

Er, no? Assuming it's tax deductible most families can probably make some lifestyle changes to free up $10k. Sure it might inhibit other goals, like building up saving or consumer spending. But it's a sacrifice that many people can make if they have a strong incentive to do so (like if the local public school is crap). And this is ignoring any sort of subsidy or assistance.

> You also mention religious schools. Why should a person have to indoctrinated in a religion to receive a good education?

I mentioned them in context cheaper private school education. Not to mention, the fact that you immediately leapt from "religious school" to "indoctrination" indicates that you seem to be approaching this with your conclusions decided a priori and are looking to justify them rather than participate in good faith.

> lifestyle changes to free up $10k.

Seriously? Do you have a family? Raising kids is really expensive, even without sending them off to public school. After rent, food, clothing, medical care, and transportation, there is not much left.

As for your comments about religious school, I am basing my comments on real the real world experience of having gone to a religious school for 7-years. All of these schools require some type of education about the school’s founding religion. At a minimum, we are talking about a regular class. Many schools require their students to adhere to the standards of the religion during the course of the school day. Please explain to me how this is not indoctrination?

If an extra $10k out of an overall family income of $65k is impossible then I'd say that this family isn't managing money well. Were they not putting anything into savings before? Did they have no savings? Again, it'd be a significant sacrifice to afford private school - I've said so since the beginning - but it is possible for a lot more than just "a tiny minority" (your original words).

> All of these schools require some type of education about the school’s founding religion. At a minimum, we are talking about a regular class. Many schools require their students to adhere to the standards of the religion during the course of the school day.

And from this, you jump to "indoctrination". I and other family members have been to religious schools as well. One of my sister's closest friends was Jewish, and went to Catholic without any type of issue. And both my sister and I are about as atheistic as you can get. If merely teaching a class about the founding religion counts as indoctrination then this is a very, very permissive definition of indoctrination you're using.

Advocacy of a specific religion should not be part of a citizen's formal education. Private religious schools receive public funding and public accreditation, and they should not, nor should any other private school, for that matter.

I'm not sure why you're mentioning public funds, seeing as it was never brought up. Regardless, public funds can only be used for secular education: https://www.pewforum.org/2009/05/14/shifting-boundaries5/. Public funds can be spent on religious schools provided that the funds go to secular education within those schools.

The above commenter immediately claimed that private religious schools are "indoctrination" - despite the previous comment only mentioning religious schools in passing (since they're generally less expensive than secular religious schools). That kind of intense blanket leap to a serious allegation is not indicative of reasonable view on the subject, regardless of one's opinions on public funds going towards religious schools.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com