The $500,000 Question : Part 3

The Kindergarten Wars: The Battle to Get into America's Best Private Schools
by Alan Eisenstock

(Page 3 of 5)

Pastor Sweetie Williams is in his mid-fifties, a gentle, soft-spoken man. The timbre of his voice exudes kindness. A pastor for over twenty years, he is courteous in the way of many former military men, of whom he is one.

"The lawsuit started when Eliezer was in seventh grade," he says. "He would come home after school and he would never do any homework. I asked him about it and he said that he didn't have any books. I went to the teacher. It was true. There were no books. At that point, the ACLU had been brought in, and we got involved, along with a lot of other people throughout the state. The conditions in Eliezer's high school are terrible. The classrooms are very overcrowded. The bathrooms have no doors. There's no privacy. There's graffiti all over the place. You walk in there, it seems like the place has been forsaken. I know the lawsuit won't benefit Eliezer, but it will help other children. These are the future of our country, let alone our families. Also, I have a three-year-old daughter. I'm really keeping an eye on her education. We thought about homeschooling her but we can't do it. My wife and I both work. I've been thinking a lot about private school. When I was stationed in Texas, our older daughter was in private school through sixth grade. She is the only one of our children who graduated college. Going to private school made all the difference for her."

Pastor Williams's voice sinks into a lower register. "So far I haven't found a private school near us for my daughter. I don't want her to go through what Eliezer did. I'm not sure what to do."

* * *

Many public schools in our wealthiest suburbs and in booming cities such as Las Vegas feature facilities equal to any found in the most well-endowed private schools as well as classes that limit the number of students to a maximum of twenty. But as a former cochair of the board of trustees of a private school said, "Every school has a body and a soul. The body is the facilities, after-school programs, and so forth. The soul is the administration and staff, curriculum, and philosophy. You can be wowed by the body but I look for the soul."

The soul of every school is its faculty. Good teachers are rare; inspiring teachers are a gift. The best are adept communicators, innovative thinkers, and lifelong learners. They are not necessarily credentialed.

The dean of a private school, who began as a third grade teacher, graduated college with no thought at all of becoming a teacher. "I fell into it. I didn't know what I was going to do after college. I applied for a corporate job, didn't get it, then figured I'd follow my boyfriend to New York and look for a job there. One day, there was a job fair at school. I went and talked to the head of a private elementary school in New York. She described a dream job: working with kids, freedom to create your own curriculum, an inspiring work environment. I was hooked. Got the job and found my calling. I think that happens to a lot of people."

"Actually, we are the kids we teach," a middle school head told me. "We never want to leave school."

Many young college graduates, often from the Ivy League colleges, find a fit as private school teachers. Their background - as liberal arts graduates, high achievers with a passion for learning - flies against the stereotype associated with public school teachers: young people who have identified a career path in college and have graduated with a degree in education.

"There is nothing more meaningless than an education major," the middle school head said. "Those courses don't prepare you for the job. It's amazing. And there's nothing more suspicious than someone gushing, 'I got into teaching because I just adore kids!' That sends me running the other way. I want passionate, motivated, creative people. It goes without saying that they like kids. Why else would you apply for a job as an elementary school teacher?"

And what about the belief that public schools pay better than private schools?

"It's a myth," a school head told me. "We may not be able to offer the long-term security that a school district can because our teachers are not in a union, but as far as salary and benefit packages go, we're right up there. In fact, we might be pulling ahead."

* * *

Are private schools better than public schools?

The answer delves into the realm of judgment, that always dicey component required when assessing a quality. Some politicians and educators would argue that No Child Left Behind attempts to remove the qualitative component from the assessment process. Many educators would vehemently disagree, saying that you can't account for a child's mood on a given day, and that you can't test creativity, motivation, abstract reasoning ability, and collaboration skills, all cornerstones of progressive private school curriculums and factors that are the opposite of rote learning, which is what NCLB tests.

There is also a short answer to the question.

It depends on where you live and who you are.

Acknowledging that there are always exceptions, if you are poor, and especially if you are poor and live in a city, it is not out of bounds to say that any private school would be an improvement over your neighborhood school. Pastor Sweetie Williams participated in a lawsuit to try to improve sixty public schools across California, while his son Eliezer submitted himself to conditions in school every day that bordered on inhumane. But every case is not so clear-cut.

Eve, the daughter of a physician, lives in a wealthy suburb of a major city. She attended public school from kindergarten through twelfth grade. She received an excellent education and attends a top college.

Stacy, also the daughter of a physician, lives seven miles away from Eve in a desirable neighborhood in the city, but one where the public schools are decrepit, overcrowded, and a war zone for rival gangs. Having no choice, Stacy attended private schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and attends a top college.

In order to receive an education that approached Eve's in quality, Stacy's parents had to enroll her in private school. Their choices were either to pay close to $500,000 to educate her from kindergarten through twelfth grade or to move. Fortunately, Stacy's parents had the resources to afford to live where they wanted and provide Stacy with a quality education. Pastor Williams and millions like him simply do not have that option.

The four women I followed considered their local public schools. For each of them, this was the first step in their kindergarten application process. They came away with concerns about facilities, faculty, curriculum, class size, and safety. Only one mom, Lauren Pernice, who lives in an exclusive neighborhood, said that she would settle for public school should her son not be accepted to private school. The other three felt that getting their children into private school was nothing less than necessary.

* * *

Copyright © 2006 by Duck Island Productions, Inc.

About the Author

Alan Eisenstock is the author of Ten on Sunday: The Secret Life of Men, Sports Talk: A Journey Inside the World of Sports Talk Radio, and Inside the Meat Grinder. In a career spanning twenty-five years, he has written movies, plays, magazine articles, and television shows. He lives in California.