Why did you choose private school over the local public school?

[Anonymous]

Read the college admissions thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We chose private school in part because of my original bias (as a private school graduate and subsequent Ivy league graduate myself) and because we bought a home not accounting for the quality of the local elementary school (given our original bias for private).

I think if money was no object, e.g. if our HHI was around or more than very high six figures, 700k+, than I wouldn't hesitate to pay for most of the top-shelf privates around here. The benefits are well outlined in this thread.

That said, cost-benefit matters. Private school tuition has vastly outpaced inflation in the metro area. You are paying about 2.5x in real dollars today than what you would have paid in the 1990s (e.g. tuition apace with inflation at the top schools would be around $16-18k today not $30k+).

With an HHI in the 300s, shouldering two tuition payments puts a brutal crush on our budget. For this alone I would switch to an excellent APS or Fairfax County public- but I would have to bear the transaction costs of selling our home and moving to a better school pyramid. Frankly, within a couple years we will simply do this. We just can't' afford to keep paying $60k/year (increasing by 5-10% each year) in tuition.

I also think the price changes have vastly changed the demographics of private school in a negative way- a far more narrow range of professions and backgrounds seem to be reflected among families, at our private anyway. I find it to be a much more toxic and pretentious social environment than I found at my private school 25 years ago. We frankly stay out of the social scene outside of kids activities/events.

PP here. I still would like my kids to aspire to the top college they can gain admission to (and I am more than willing to shell out if they get admission to a top private college- I think the ROI and learning experience at the top-tier is still substantial). The proportion of prep school graduates amongst each year's annual admissions gets smaller at most of these schools, including my Ivy League alma mater. The feeder system, outside the New England preps perhaps, relies as much on top public high schools as private ones now. I don't think the value for money (for those of us for whom $30k/annum/child is a substantial share of total income) is there compared to when I went, especially at the elementary school level. I've come to terms with the fact that privates will now be an exclusive preserve for the top 1% with a few token scholarship kids rather than a mix from within the top 5-10% of income earners as in the old days.

I might consider putting the kids back in private for high school years if it makes sense for them individually. But for now as soon as I can move into a better school pyramid, I will pull my kids from private. I think they will thrive regardless in any of the well regarded APS or FCPS public elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We chose private school in part because of my original bias (as a private school graduate and subsequent Ivy league graduate myself) and because we bought a home not accounting for the quality of the local elementary school (given our original bias for private).

I think if money was no object, e.g. if our HHI was around or more than very high six figures, 700k+, than I wouldn't hesitate to pay for most of the top-shelf privates around here. The benefits are well outlined in this thread.

That said, cost-benefit matters. Private school tuition has vastly outpaced inflation in the metro area. You are paying about 2.5x in real dollars today than what you would have paid in the 1990s (e.g. tuition apace with inflation at the top schools would be around $16-18k today not $30k+).

With an HHI in the 300s, shouldering two tuition payments puts a brutal crush on our budget. For this alone I would switch to an excellent APS or Fairfax County public- but I would have to bear the transaction costs of selling our home and moving to a better school pyramid. Frankly, within a couple years we will simply do this. We just can't' afford to keep paying $60k/year (increasing by 5-10% each year) in tuition.

I also think the price changes have vastly changed the demographics of private school in a negative way- a far more narrow range of professions and backgrounds seem to be reflected among families, at our private anyway. I find it to be a much more toxic and pretentious social environment than I found at my private school 25 years ago. We frankly stay out of the social scene outside of kids activities/events.

PP here. I still would like my kids to aspire to the top college they can gain admission to (and I am more than willing to shell out if they get admission to a top private college- I think the ROI and learning experience at the top-tier is still substantial). The proportion of prep school graduates amongst each year's annual admissions gets smaller at most of these schools, including my Ivy League alma mater. The feeder system, outside the New England preps perhaps, relies as much on top public high schools as private ones now. I don't think the value for money (for those of us for whom $30k/annum/child is a substantial share of total income) is there compared to when I went, especially at the elementary school level. I've come to terms with the fact that privates will now be an exclusive preserve for the top 1% with a few token scholarship kids rather than a mix from within the top 5-10% of income earners as in the old days.
[i]
I might consider putting the kids back in private for high school years if it makes sense for them individually. But for now as soon as I can move into a better school pyramid, I will pull my kids from private. I think they will thrive regardless in any of the well regarded APS or FCPS public elementary schools.

Interestingly enough, in the "good old days" many of these private schools were the exclusive domain of the old Brahmin or WASP families. The DC private schools were, ironically, less egalitarian institutions than they are today; as admission then depended more on one's social status and connections. Did your father work for The President? Check. Did your mother socialize with owners and senior editors of The Post? Check again. Yes, this included more highly-upper-middle class families, - the aforementioned professors, government officials,and important journalists, - but only those families were well-connected, intellectual, and old-money. The private schools today still have a good socioeconomic mix, and importantly, one's place in society seems to be much less a factor for admissions.

[Anonymous]

The local dcps seemed overcrowded.