@Aufilia: I am also a strong supporter of public schools. My husband and I both attended them and we have many family members who are public school teachers. Unfortunately, the school system here has real issues. The system is hostile to gifted students. It eliminated the GATE program and just last year got rid of honors math classes because kids who don't qualify might feel bad. There are also new rules that require all students to start with Algebra I in ninth grade and forbid them from testing out or taking higher level courses unless they are transferring from private school and can test into higher courses. This forces students to take a compressed version of Algebra II and precalculus the following year if they want to complete all the math courses. My husband is a mathematician and our son appears to be gifted in that area and we don't want to send him to a school that refuses to accommodate children who are gifted in math.
On top of that, we received an undesirable public school assignment that is far away, in a failing school and in a very dangerous neighborhood.
