Choose Culver City Schools

What is the reasoning behind choosing a private or charter school over a Culver City Unified School?  Some of it is based upon statistics, such as classroom size or test scores.  Some of it is just educational philosophy (more structure or less structure, science focused, arts focus, etc.).  And some of it is just perception—a false perception that CCUSD schools aren’t good enough.

I recently read an interesting article online, which weighed private versus public schools.  The writer’s opinion is that parents should not make any K-12 school decisions based purely on college admissions odds.  There are pros and cons to both choices, and ultimately you should choose your school based upon what will make your child most happy. 

An argument can be made that sending your child to your neighborhood school is healthiest not only for your child, but also for your family.  Avoiding the inconvenience of the commute to another school, and the cost of admission for some private schools, while enjoying the convenience of sharing your children’s educational experience with your neighbors are strong arguments to at least try the schools that CCUSD has to offer.

The writer of the above mentioned article also reported the following, regarding the chances of admission to top universities from a competitive private school versus a good public school:  “It’s actually HARDER to be in the top 5-10 percent of the class at a place where almost everyone is qualified versus a big public school...  In short, you should make this decision based on the options, comfort level, course offerings, sports and specialty offerings for your child…”

If you couple that information with the fact that you are a parent who cares enough about your child’s education that you will make sure they stay on task, no matter where they go to school, then your child has just as good a chance at getting into a great college from CCUSD as they would anywhere else.

And by the way, a strong argument for considering a public school education in Culver City is the fact that there is such a variance in our student population:  The racial diversity:  37 percent Latino, 22 percent White, 17 percent African American, 10 percent Asian. As for socieoeconomic diversity:  36 percent are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and of the 15 percent of our student body that are English language learners, there are 39 languages spoken.  It’s like the United Nations!

CCUSD will provide a real-world environment, with children who possess a wide range of backgrounds and abilities, which is something that a smaller school environment most likely cannot provide. 

Hopefully, all parents will consider these things when deciding upon their children’s future school.