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

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/nyregion/foreign-parents-in-new-york-prefer-public-schools.html?scp=1&sq=born%20abroad&st=Search

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: February 14, 2012

Miriam and Christian Rengier, a German couple moving to New York, visited some private elementary schools in Manhattan last spring in search of a place for their son. They immediately noticed the absence of ethnic diversity, and the chauffeurs ferrying children to the door.

And then, at one school, their guide showed them the cafeteria.

“The kids were able to choose between seven different lunches: sushi and macrobiotics and whatever,” Ms. Rengier recalled. “And I said, ‘What if I don’t want my son to choose from seven different lunches?’ And she looked at me like I was an idiot.”

For the Rengiers, the decision was clear: Their son would go to public school.

“It was not the question if we could afford it or not,” said Ms. Rengier, whose husband was transferred to the city because of his job as a lawyer and tax consultant. “It was a question of whether it was real life or not.”

In New York, the affluent typically send their children to private schools. But not the foreign-born affluent. In a divergence, a large majority of wealthy foreign-born New Yorkers are sending their children to public schools, according to an analysis of census data.

[...]

In interviews, affluent foreign-born New Yorkers said that like all conscientious parents, they weighed various criteria in choosing schools, including quality, cost and location. But many said they were also swayed by the greater ethnic and economic diversity of the public schools. Some said that as immigrants, they had learned to navigate different cultures — a skill they wanted to imbue in their children.

“When they go to public school, they’re in a whole new world, a whole world of different people and different values, which is what the world is like,” said Lyn Bollen, who grew up in Birmingham, England, and attended — and taught at — state-run schools. “Shielding them from that is doing them a disservice.”

[...]

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

Still, some said that because they grew up in countries with strong public school systems, they arrived in New York with a more open mind about public education.

Immigrants from Canada and several Western European countries said that back home, private schools were often viewed as places for children with special learning needs. Most of the wealthy families they knew sent their children to public schools, they said.

[...]

Ashima Dayal, a lawyer who arrived from India as a child, said her parents had instilled in her an immigrant’s toughness and resourcefulness. She said this experience had probably made her less demanding of certain amenities and more accepting of some of the public system’s shortcomings.

“Speaking to my American friends, they say, ‘The cafeteria is not nice,’ ” Ms. Dayal said. “I don’t give a damn if the cafeteria is nice! I would like there not to be splinters in the gym.” She paused, adding, “I just come from a different place.”

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