By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

DOWNTOWN - The district may have its troubles, but the top Cincinnati Public Schools are as good as the best private schools in the country, parents of some CPS students maintain.

At a forum Sunday at Christ Church Cathedral, a panel of parents spoke before a group of about 20 people on public perceptions of city schools.

The forum was third in a series this month at the cathedral on public education in Cincinnati. Christ Church is a member of the Amos Project, a group of 39 local congregations seeking social change.

"My impression of Cincinnati Public Schools is so different from what I hear from a lot of folks," said Elizabeth Brown, 55, of Mount Washington, one of four parents on the panel.

Brown said that when she and her husband moved to Cincinnati, they insisted on living in the CPS district because they wanted their sons' classes to be racially diverse.

They found that, as well as high academic standards, at Walnut Hills High School, she said.

She pointed to Walnut Hills' recent selection as one of only 10 schools in the nation for a study on how schools prepare students for college.

Her son Eric received a perfect SAT score and went on to Yale University, she said. He told her he thought Walnut Hills prepared him better than the schools his classmates attended.

"This city should celebrate that it has one of the best schools in the country, public or private," Brown said. "It seems in Cincinnati we shove it under the rug as if we're ashamed of it."

Leigh Smith, 44, of Hyde Park, another parent on the panel, said his children have attended private schools - Waldorf in Winton Place and Bethany in Glendale. His son Christian, 14, is an eighth-grader at Walnut Hills, and son Hugh, 11, is in fifth grade at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.

"I haven't seen much of a difference between public and private," Smith said.

Brown said she's had other parents tell her, "Well, that's Walnut Hills," when she praises the school.

"It's treated almost as a private school, and it is not," she said.

CPS board member Rick Williams is scheduled to speak at the next education forum, set for 9 a.m. March 28 at the cathedral. Information: 621-1817.

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E-mail loakes@enquirer.com