Private school or not
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Anonymous
I’m the pp who is flying economy plus to Asia for 15k. Business class for same trip would have been 60+k for us. We are going to two countries. Even between the two countries, each business flight ticket would have been 5k each. There are a lot of rich people in Asia or business travelers willing to pay this. We can technically afford it but we will just fly economy plus. We have a lot of hotel and miles but not enough for a family of 5. For 2 people, yes. |
Anonymous
yes, all those morons at NCS/STA |
Anonymous
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Sure, you can afford it. I wouldn't pay for it though. I would much rather take nicer and more vacations with family than spend on private school. or earmark for the kids college or help with downpayment, wedding etc.
We live in a MCOL city in Austin. Our public schools are great, provided you buy into a good area. We "only" have 700K HHI , send our kids to public. Plenty of Meta, Apple, Dell, IBM, HP, startup VP/SVP level execs send their kids to the same public school. There are also single income families and some apartment complexes zoned to our Public school, so I feel my kids are able to meet and connect with kids from a wide range of socio economic status. |
Anonymous
Same. We have a high enough income to pay for private school but we bought into a good school district. Plenty of tech executives, lawyers, doctors and other well educated high income professionals send their kids to the local public. If I lived in DC or a bad district, we would probably be sending our kids to private. |
Anonymous
You are paying for your great public school through exorbitant housing costs and property taxes, it's not free. You can't afford to pay for a great private for multiple kids on that HHI, not without your quality of life diminishing substantially. That's the crux of it for most of the posters who are against it here, they can't really afford it. |
Anonymous
DP: many flights coast to coast (or to the Caribbean/hawaii) are close to $1500+ in economy nowadays. Upgrade to economy plus and it can easily be $2K+ per ticket times 5 that's $10K alone. Airfare is extremely expensive nowadays. I routinely pay $1.5-2K for my kid's roundtrip ticket to/from college (2 flights) in economy. |
Anonymous
NP. We live in the one of the most expensive areas in the DMV and considered one of the best school districts. Many kids go to ivies from the high school we are zoned for. That said, we send our kids to private. One has already graduated from a top 20 university where we paid full freight. The second one is at a high school with $48,000 a year tuition. Both kids attended Catholic high schools and had experiences that they never would have had in our public school. In addition to the moral and ethical lessons they learn through service work and in theology classes, they are limited on how many AP classes they can take. For example, my son only took 6 AP classes in his entire high school career, but he still got admitted to several top 25 schools. My daughter will probably take about 8 at most and we expect her to do well in college matriculation as well. Setting up kids to do well in college matriculation in our public school would require the kids take 10 or more AP classes. I know someone who took 14. It really is a pressure cooker environment. I feel our money is buying our kids the opportunity to experience joy in learning without the stresses of competing with the super high achievers in our public school. Plus college matriculations out of our kids' private schools are much stronger than the public school, despite the fact they take significantly less AP classes. They also get a lot more attention from faculty and administration and have more opportunities for leadership. Our income isn't significantly more than the person who posted above, although if we included bonuses (which are deferred), it would be significantly more. We are living quite comfortably despite parting with the yearly tuition expenses, and it is worth every single penny. |
Anonymous
Your income is significantly higher than the person who posted above and you proved my point to an extent. Private schools confer substantial advantages to those who can truly afford them. Families who can technically afford them but have to make significant lifestyle changes (in savings, camps, private lessons, vacations etc.) make an entirely different cost benefit calculation. |
Anonymous
For me, I'd much rather live in a nicer area where I want to use the public schools, than have to downgrade so much and rely on private because the public schools are terrible. Sure you pay more for the home, but it will also maintain it's value much better than a home with bad schools. People buy where we live for the schools and the family quality of life. Just sold after 9 years living here---made 1.9x what we paid for the house, after all fees/taxes paid. Main reason the homes appreciate so much is the schools and quality of life. Oh and we bought a home with a view, so in the "top neighborhood" within our community, but one of the "lower homes" (ours was 4200 sq ft vs 5-6K for many others). The schools and the views is what sold our house---the same thing that made us want to purchase it in the first place |
Anonymous
OP, I really believe you should think twice about private school. Everyone that sends their kids to one openly talks about more opportunity, better education, fewer distractions, and more comfortable alignment with upper class families. The reality is, however, that most of those same people are actually using private school as an opportunity to isolate their children from people of color and low income students. It is truly saddening to me that we still live in a society that practices such obvious discrimination in a deceptively concealed manner. Is this the person you want to be, OP? Please rise above it and take the higher ground. |
Anonymous
Private schools have more diversity than public schools in wealthy enclaves. |
Anonymous
This. We live in a wealthy neighborhood in close-in Bethesda (Whitman cluster, good public schools) and our Bethesda private school is actually more diverse than our home school, and so are the teachers. I am a POC and my kids would be the the only or one of a very few POCs if they went to the local public. My kids all go to independent schools and it’s worth it to us. I don’t see our local public schools as bad (they aren’t, they are really good), we just think there is a markedly better educational experience at their independent school. I don’t care about outcomes - I think kids who are smart and hard working will thrive wherever they are placed. I went to public school, so I’m not a snob about private vs. public. |
Anonymous
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“Private schools have more diversity than public schools in wealthy enclaves.”
Having a bunch of 1%er kids who have light brown skin isn’t diversity. Have your private admit 20% FARMS kids, half of whom don’t speak English and the other half have behavioral problems because of fetal alcohol syndrome or childhood trauma - then we’ll talk. |
Anonymous
Diversity is a range of ethnic backgrounds. Not a range of medical problems. |
Anonymous
School attendance zones can change and there is a risk (more so with very high performing schools) that this will reduce property values if attendance zones change. In the DC metro area, most school district are at the county level so there is less certainty that the best public schools will continue to stay excellent when the geographic size of the school district is so large. It would be very easy to redraw school attendance zones for McLean or Langley high school and tank the average SAT scores. If you live in a small hyperlocal school district (common in NJ, OH, PA) the public schools are more protected from dramatic changes in school performance. Unless you are wealthy enough to afford a house in the best school attendance zone and private school it might be safer to hedge your bets and pick a house with decent schools that will allow you to afford private school if needed. |