New York Times: Affluent, Born Abroad and Choosing New York’s Public Schools

All;

I saw an interesting article in today's NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/nyregion/foreign-parents-in-new-york-prefer-public-schools.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=education#comments

"There are roughly 15,500 households in the city with school-age children where the total income is at least $150,000 and both parents were born abroad. Of those, about 10,500, or 68 percent, use only the public schools, the data show. That is nearly double the rate of American-born parents in the city in the same income bracket."

The reasons given for this choice of schools is twofold. One, private schools are upwards of 40K per year, in some cases, and two, parents want their children to be able to deal with a variety of people.

Of course, affluent foreign-born New Yorkers tend to live in relatively well-to-do neighborhoods, which often have better public schools....."