Private or public kindergarden?

Dear friends,

My son will go to kindergarten in this fall. Now we are thinking which kindergarten that he should go. His current pre-school also has kindergarten program, only one class, about 16 kids, the time is from 8:30 to 3:30, the cost is about $1700. Or he can go to the kindergarten of the public school (his old brother is there and he will be in 4th grade). The public kindergarten is only half day, for the afternoon, he has to stay at the after-school care program in the school, the after-school care program costs about $550, kids mainly play there.

My idea is to go to the private one, which sounds pretty good, he will certainly learn more (they mainly learn first-grade stuff there). It is a full-day program and they always have lots of performance. But my hu*****and thinks he should go to public kindergarten. He does not care if my son can learn more, he think the important thing for the kids in kindergarden is to get familiar with the school, be ready for the first-grade and play. He thinks the cost of the private kindergarden does not worth it, he can use this amount of money to sign lots of activities for my son.

These days, we are arguing about this a lot. What do you guys think? Do your kids go to public or private kindergarten?

Thank you so much for your time.