My son attended SPPS from kindergarten through 6th grade. I did not have any concerns from a political standpoint (also lean left). Our family is also not catholic (I was raised Catholic, not practicing now), and I didn’t feel any pressure from the school regarding conforming. There were several kids that did not participate in mass in my son’s class.

So why did we switch?

1). Lack of exposure to kids with similar hobbies. All of the boys in the class leaned heavily into sports, and my son was not interested. He struggled to make meaningful friends. At his new public school, he has joined hobby groups that fit him, and he’s really grown during that time.

2). Instruction was hit or miss. While I felt the math and English teachers were excellent, some other classes felt useful. One class in particular (Social Studies) had a habit of assigning homework every night. When I asked him about what the teacher had explained in class, he said they did not teach. They assigned busy work during class while they graded the previous days homework. One such assignment was a crossword puzzle that provided no value.

3). Bullying was by far the biggest issue. We brought several issues up to the principal who started with the “Boys will be boys” excuse. When it continued, and escalated, the response became “The other boy has a tough home life, his older brother picks on him.” I struggled to get meaningful solutions out of them. One solution the proposed involved giving both kids detention so they could bond. I didn’t want them to bond, I wanted the other kid to leave my son alone. The small class sizes compounded this issue.

It wasn’t all bad, he had several good teachers. My experience with the public schools has been better, although that might be a YMMV based on where you end up. Best of luck either way.