Parents sharing the process of searching for a school in Greater Philadelphia. What kind of school are you looking for? Charter, public, private, city, suburban?
Parents that gamble by buying a house in a desirable catchment or forgo the lottery or private school application process could end up out of luck 
'Choice' is a term that makes my blood boil when you have a special son like mine, cause it only existent to the extent you want to play roulette with your child's education. I played. 
New items of interest to parents this week, from all over the media.
Some second thoughts on the Ackerman contracting controversy | Philadelphia Public School Notebook–Great, balanced and lucid article for people who want to understand both sides of the controversy.
Haddonfield Schools Pursue More Tuition Students | Philadelphia Inquirer–For $10K+, you can send your child to... 
It did not occur to me that a child able to attend Masterman for high school would turn it down in favor of a Catholic school. 
The primary reason why I choose Catholic school for our daughter was that she was not going to meet the public school age limit for Kindergarten. We were coming from Canada where the age limit for Kindergarten was 5 by December 31st and we were only moving to Philadelphia for a couple of years so when looking for places to live, I asked in a couple of Catholic schools to see if they would take her, and St Francis Xavier said they were happy to. This ultimately brought us to live in Fairmount! I think the Catholic schools have a little more flexibility than the public schools in that regard. Overall I was very happy with the Catholic school experience (specifically St Frannies) for the following 
Longtime readers of this blog know that I am Jewish. As such, Catholic Schools have not been on my school search radar and, by extension, absent from this blog. I have been looking into getting contributions from other parents on a variety of topics, including Catholic schools. Are you interested in contributing?
In the meantime, if you are considering Catholic School options in Philly, be sure to...
Len Lipkin
PSS Community