Santa Monica parents met with solid choices
CITYWIDE When it came time to choose the right elementary school for her free-spirited daughter, the choice was clear for Rachel Bank.
In the fall of 2006, the Santa Monica mom, attracted to the idea of a progressive-approach to learning, enrolled her child in PS #1, an independent school on Euclid Street that takes a pluralistic perspective to education.
“I know that my child is having an excellent experience,” Bank said on Thursday of her 6-year-old daughter. “She loves the school.”
Just down the street from the Banks residence is Franklin Elementary School, considered to be among the best primary institutions in what has often been referred to as one of the best public school districts in the state, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD).
So why opt for the private school that comes with a pricey annual tuition?
For Bank, the decision was in the size. “I think that Santa Monica has excellent public schools... and we have many friends whose children go there and they all speak highly of it,”Bank said. “We felt we wanted a more intimate place and in our choosing, we really embraced the philosophy of PS #1.”
It’s a difficult, albeit lucky, decision that many parents residing in Santa Monica have to face as their children approach school age, grappling with decisions as to whether to send their kids to a private or public school.
In just 8.3 square miles, Santa Monica is stacked with a seemingly endless supply of educational options for parents,from the 12 public schools, to an array of private school choices, each offering a different educational mission, from the religions side with St. Monica Catholic High School and the Pilgrim Lutheran School to the secular with institutions like New Roads and PS #1, to the arts and science-based curriculum of the Crossroads School.
More options are better than none at all. “There’s a kind of (mentality) of individualism in Santa Monica, just as a community, and schools tend to reflect that,” Jim McManus, the executive director of the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), said. “People value education and they have multiple pathways to pursue in educating their kids.”
Santa Monica is among several cities that have a high number of schools within its city limits. The city of Pasadena, in addition to the public school system, has about 12 or 13 independent schools that are members of the CAIS. Santa Monica is unique in that for its size, it has a dense concentration of schools, McManus said.The CAIS in Santa Monica has three member schools, including Crossroads, PS #1, Carlthorp and New Roads.
Nearly half of all students that attend private schools go to Catholic schools, McManus estimated.
In Santa Monica, more residents opt for the public school system with roughly 85 percent of the city’s school-age population enrolled in the SMMUSD in 2005. That number is up from 5 years prior when only 80 percent of the city’s children attended a public school, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The percentage of students enrolled in public schools gradually declines from elementary school onward — only 79 percent of Santa Monica children attend a public high school, a drop from 82 percent in grades five through eight and even more substantial drop from 83 percent in first through fourth grade, according to 2000 census data. The number is significantly lower in kindergarten where only 73 percent of the city’s children attended a public kindergarten.
The city is below the national average of 89 percent of school-aged children attending public schools, according to Jose Escarce, the vice president of the SMMUSD Board of Education.
In affluent communities like Santa Monica where residents can offten afford the pricey tuition that comes with an independent school, the percentage of children opting for private school is usually higher, Escarce added.
Some of the most notable differences between private and public schools seem to fall under two categories — funding and accessibility. While private schools don’t rely on state and federal funding, many do have a high tuition that can rival that of a private university, making public school a more affordable and feasible options for many families, enhancing the economic and cultural diversities of public schools. Due to the fact that private schools don’t receive state and federal funding, those schools are not tied up by stringent testing standards set under No Child Left Behind, giving teachers considerably more time to just focus on the curriculum itself, educators say. Private schools also tend to have smaller class sizes.
“One of the most atrocious things to happen to public schools is No Child Left Behind,” Roger Weaver, the headmaster at Crossroads, said. “That piece of legislation has created an almost test-driven culture that takes out of the mix the opportunity for the teachable moment with kids.”
It’s the same battle cry heard by NCLB opponents since the legislation was instituted, arguing that public school teachers spend countless
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 8, 2008. Read the original PDF.