Re: Planning your child’s schooling (US version)
All private schools are not equal just like all public schools. The best private school in our town has a tuition fee tag of about $1000-$2000 a month depending upon the grade level. For some families that could mean either choosing to save for college or sending your kid to private school so a lot boils down to affordability too. A lot of public school districts are good too. We live in the 3rd highest rated school system because the houses in the top 2 ones were very expensive. But even in the third and fourth highest rated ones I see lots of desi kids going to Medical school (there are some medical schools that accept you right out of high school but its hard to get in) and others got into good universities and then to Med school or other good professions. Some got scholarships too. Ours is a school district where a large number of desis go to and it creates a competitive academic environment. A lot of desis and goras too complement schooling with tuitions or tuition centers like Kumon etc.
So I do believe that public schools can produce good kids and the average kid from our school district in my opinion does have a very good chance of going into a good profession.
Regarding islamic schools, the one in our area is highly regarded academically as well and the price tag is $400 a month. But I believe that its better for families who want their kids to have a solid religious background. I myself am very happy with the Sunday school the hours of which are 10:30-2:30 pm. We do stuff on Sundays too after Sunday school like going to the zoo, parties etc after Sunday school or on Saturdays. A quran tutor or Skype lessons (we have done both) takes care of the Quran lessons.It depends upon your own beliefs and how moderate of a Muslim you are to want to send your kid to Islamic or Sunday School. According to my environment I am happy with Sunday school. In our Sunday school they are careful not to say stuff about goras etc but I find the Quran curriculum (surah learning etc) a bit too demanding for my liking.
For pre school, a lot of states have public pre schools beginning at generally 3 years (but a lot offer 1-2 days a week programs for 18 months and 2 year olds as well). My son went to the 2 year program and my daughter went to the 3 year old program. These programs are usually 304 days a week and despite being state run require a fee. My son went to a public school pre school program for 2 years and fo the third year, since we moved and were too late to get enrolled for the public school pre school program had to go to a private pre school program. It was run in a chruch and was cheaper than the public school. They weren’t overly religious and so i sent my daughter for 3 years to a Church run program too. Kindergarten to 12 grade is free in public schools and we get free transportation too unless you live too close to the school.
Whether public or private I believe you must supplement Islamic and regular education at home too.
In bigger cities charter and magnet schools are very good. But some are created just to give the kids of a “not so good school district” a good chance to go elsewhere. Magnet schools typically provide transportation but charter ones don’t.