Public vs private a tough choice

BEIJING - Parents choose privately funded kindergartens over good public ones for various reasons, but find that their standards vary widely in cost and quality.

After searching for four months, Li Ying, a migrant woman in Beijing, has just realized she can't afford to send her daughter to a good public kindergarten in her neighborhood.

Li said she visited all nearby kindergartens in the Jinsong area of Chaoyang district only to discover that she would have to pay at least 10,000 yuan ($1,588) to a publicly funded kindergarten as a sponsorship fee, on top of 1,500 yuan a month in tuition fees.