Are there any magnet programs in private schools? My son is going into high school already completing algebra 1 and geometry. Speaking with a few of the private schools mentioned earlier they won't have a math class for him in a couple years and he will have to go to a community college for math classes his senior year. Public schools meet that need without having to send the kids elsewhere.
Based strictly on academics public schools are better and have more to offer the AP student than any of the private schools.
You have been talking to the wrong people. The schools my son and daughter attend offer up to Calculus II, and both of them finished Middle school having completed Algebra I and Geometry.
Not sure about the poster above but we have spoken to many of the private schools on our journey and there are definitely more AP course offerings in public schools in Harford and Howard. Not that there are not AP courses in privates-there are just not as many choices. In addition, outside of the core courses which both will have in order to graduate students, there are numerous magnet programs offered at most public high schools such as Engineering, Medical, Finance, Biomedical, Computer Science for the more advanced students. We are not just talking about a finance class or an engineering class here and there but a four year curriculum offered for advanced students. Both private and public have the high school requirements of geometry, algebra, calculus etc but it is the offerings outside of this that differentiate public in terms of curriculum. Foreign language offerings are more broad simply due to economies of scale with Latin, Chinese, Italian, German, ASL and others in addition to the usual Spanish and French. Most are generally offered through the AP level in addition to 1 & 2. It is not a criticism of private - they just do not have the scale and the resources to offer many of these things. They can touch on many of these things but they can not go into depth with their offerings. Just go online and compare the high school course catalogs for both with the class choices of the privates - many of us have spent time doing this and you will come to the same conclusion. For a child that needs a smaller class or specialized attention to graduate and soar, the private school small class size is probably ideal as well as, other pros such as more hand holding for college acceptance process, food service, alumni contributions etc. but in terms of curriculum, public schools do excel.
