Dave Cooks out as coach at Marquette High

[mufansince72]

Our family sends both of our children to Catholic schools in Madison. The money spent is worth every single penny.

There is a HUGE difference in the learning environment between competing schools in a lot of areas in Wisconsin, not to mention the faith component.

Do public schools have daily religion class, Mass once a week, annual retreats, service days in the community, service-hour requirements?

There is a difference. Not everybody thinks the money spent to send children to Catholic/private schools is worth it. Others, though, think it is.

I am among those who think it is. Thus I can "justify" paying 10K for high school and 3k for grade school.

I'm glad for you Mark! The only difference I see though is the religion component. While public school kids are not required to have the community service requirements that you mention. It has been my experience that there are plenty of opportunities for those in public school. For all practical purposes if you want to go to a decent college, you need to have the initiative to do the community service anyway. My comments are based primarily on the financial component. From a financial standpoint, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to pay property taxes, then pay tuition, for an education that in my opinion is not that much superior than what you will get at a good public school. Bottom line in education I believe comes down to the parents.