<p>my daughter attends a high school in the inner city that has National Merit scholar numbers comparable to the private prep school that Paul Allen and Bill Gates attended.
Everyone ( mostly) is encouraged to take challenging courses, they try hard to support students and families. They also have widely recognized music programs and more clubs and activities than any school in the area.</p>
<p>( I don’t think that private schools at least around here are doing more with less, the public schools get about ? 7,000 per student, the private school tuition is about $19,000- granted the class size is smaller, but still)
The school ( inlcuding and especially the parents) work hard to raise funds and grants for programs like readright and african american scholars to support all kids.
The classes are really big ( some have 37) and some kids do slip between the cracks, but the energy is wonderful. Of course while I am fairly happy with her school ( although not so happy with our district) I don’t think Seattle can compare to Cleveland in innercity terms.</p>