Why racial segregation is unacceptable but socioeconomic segregation is ok in private schools

[Anonymous]

The only way for private schools to be more economically diverse in this area to offer school vouchers so that any kid can go to any school they want and are capable of getting in. The vouchers would have to be enough to at least the tuition amount of the lowest private school. This program would force public schools to shape up their curriculum and quality if they want to stay open. Open competition is always a good thing.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Is it hypocritical to have a racially diverse student body that is disproportionately wealthy?

No. It’s to be expected. Does it state anywhere that people pretend to want SES mixing? Isn’t that why people move to “good” public schools too - with neighborhoods that are relatively homogenous? We all want better education for our children and pay in one way or another to get it.

Hypocrisy is the act of pretending to have beliefs, virtues, or feelings that one does not actually possess, often characterized by behavior that contradicts stated principles. It involves insincerity, such as condemning a behavior in others while practicing it oneself. Examples include people moving to public school for higher SES diversity but that school only drawing from a wealthy catchment area.

Who is the real hypocrite?

Such as a $60k school stating on its website that it seeks to make sure that diversity, social justice, and inclusivity are foundational principles. Just delete this language. It’s so obviously performative.

But they DO care about those things - just not in the way you want them to.

No, they don’t. Not in the way most of the world understands social justice.

The cognitive dissonance for the students must be deafening.

Right . . . Because YOU speak for the world and therefore define how people might feel about those things. Do you also tell minorities how they feel about treatment from a white perspective? Or do you mansplain how women should feel about feminism?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This question was ridiculous and not worth all the analysis. I’m going to go be productive with my day.

This. OP is trying to make some grad point, but it's obtuse.

She should go back to civics and econ class and get a better grip on the problem that's actually needling her (ie, widened income distribution due to inflated asset values).

Sure, so socioeconomic segregation is fine in private schools I guess.

Yes and it’s prolific everywhere in society. If you’re really worried go to Scandinavia. We’re a capitalist economy not a socialist one!

[Anonymous]

Any gains to be made academically by attending a wealthy private school are more than offset by the real world losses that the student experiences. It just wouldn’t work for us.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting. It seems that socioeconomic segregation is not a problem at all for most parents.

Why would it be? The bar to entry in private school is not high enough. We would like it to be more exclusive than it already is.

I’m from a city more competitive than DC for private school. Most selective have 2-5% admit rate, less selective top tier are just shy of 15%. I totally agree!! There is still a ton of bad behavior I’d like to eradicate - like prolific social media use and phones in general. I wish parents would band together and decide this.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Interesting. It seems that socioeconomic segregation is not a problem at all for most parents.

Why would it be? The bar to entry in private school is not high enough. We would like it to be more exclusive than it already is.

I’m from a city more competitive than DC for private school. Most selective have 2-5% admit rate, less selective top tier are just shy of 15%. I totally agree!! There is still a ton of bad behavior I’d like to eradicate - like prolific social media use and phones in general. I wish parents would band together and decide this.

You New Yorkers really think you’re such hot shit. If you’re all that, what are you doing on a DC website?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a rich person myself I cannot stand private school parents. They absolutely positively think their kids are too special to go to school with kids without money and don’t think their kids can possibly learn something and be better off from the experience. It’s pathetic.

That is why financial aid programs exist. Not sure what your beef is.

The top DC privates are not overrun with poor kids on financial aid and you know it.

Some of us would say so. Financial aid is extremely generous.

At Sidwell, 77 percent of student are full pay at $60k while the other 23 percent pay on average $20k. How “generous” is that? The average “poor” kid pays $20k a year for high school.

What a joke. These are rich kid schools. Full stop. And everyone knows it, including the kids. I did not want that for my own rich kids.

No one is making you send your kids to private schools. This seems like pages of absurdly obvious comments that gets extended by folks confirming the clear. Private schools are expensive and therefore exclusionary, but for financial aid. Hard stop. No one is under any kind of illusion that it's something different, it's that we are paying for a premium product because we think it's better and we can afford it. Nice restaurants don't offer financial aid and are filled with wealthy people. Is that equally problematic? I fly in business or first class...most don't. Is that an issue for you?

Wealthy people, rightly or wrongly but definitionally, can afford to purchase things that less wealthy folks cannot. Is that breaking news is some way?

Yes, but airlines or nice restaurants don’t print in their tickets or menus the label of social justice, so they are not deceiving anyone.

No idea why you think we care about social justice or socioeconomic equality.

This is just a school for our kids. We don’t care about that stuff. Move on.

But the schools you send your kids to pretend to. We prefer dealing with honest brokers.

My kids attend 2 different private school - I just reread their websites and mission statement- NOTHING about social justice. Maybe those are just the hippie dippie schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone please explain how to reconcile the attitude by private school parents ?

- I want a school just for white kids : Not good.

- I want a school just for rich kids : good.

In principle shouldn’t a school try to be inclusive and tolerant across several dimensions, not just race?

How about - I want a school with few behavior problems that favors intelligent kids and provides personal learning. This is the truth for most people - your truth is actually opinion

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a rich person myself I cannot stand private school parents. They absolutely positively think their kids are too special to go to school with kids without money and don’t think their kids can possibly learn something and be better off from the experience. It’s pathetic.

That is why financial aid programs exist. Not sure what your beef is.

The top DC privates are not overrun with poor kids on financial aid and you know it.

Some of us would say so. Financial aid is extremely generous.

At Sidwell, 77 percent of student are full pay at $60k while the other 23 percent pay on average $20k. How “generous” is that? The average “poor” kid pays $20k a year for high school.

What a joke. These are rich kid schools. Full stop. And everyone knows it, including the kids. I did not want that for my own rich kids.

No one is making you send your kids to private schools. This seems like pages of absurdly obvious comments that gets extended by folks confirming the clear. Private schools are expensive and therefore exclusionary, but for financial aid. Hard stop. No one is under any kind of illusion that it's something different, it's that we are paying for a premium product because we think it's better and we can afford it. Nice restaurants don't offer financial aid and are filled with wealthy people. Is that equally problematic? I fly in business or first class...most don't. Is that an issue for you?

Wealthy people, rightly or wrongly but definitionally, can afford to purchase things that less wealthy folks cannot. Is that breaking news is some way?

Yes, but airlines or nice restaurants don’t print in their tickets or menus the label of social justice, so they are not deceiving anyone.

No idea why you think we care about social justice or socioeconomic equality.

This is just a school for our kids. We don’t care about that stuff. Move on.

But the schools you send your kids to pretend to. We prefer dealing with honest brokers.

We? So if you are a disgruntled private school parent leave. And if you aren't a private school family who cares? Fix your own broken school.

I’m not. I’m the rich poster who sent my kids to public. But I appreciate your honest feedback, because you and your attitude are exactly why I didn’t send my kids to private and it’s good to see my reasoning confirmed. But I guarantee you do not talk so bluntly when you’re not posting anonymously, hypocrite.

I went to public school. That was enough for me! I tell people who ask why I chose private school, I guess we haven't crossed paths yet. To each their own.

[Anonymous]

Oh boy, people do not like talking about this!

Private school is inherently elitist no matter the metric used for selection. We are more comfortable with elitism along economic lines than race. A lot of what you are buying with a private school education is cultural exclusivity and isn't really about academics and that has always been the case, though of course within the private school community, people will also compete for academic superiority (it is not enough for a hierarchy to exist between the wealthy and the poor, there must also be hierarchies among the wealthy, and academics are one though never the most important one).

A private school that was selective based purely on academics, with scholarships for those who could not afford it, is interesting in theory but ignores the fact that being able to choose your kids' peers' parents is one of the things people like most about private.

[Anonymous]

I have never spent a day wondering why rich people chose a public school over a private school for their kids. But, apparently that's how some people spend their time. Wondering why people make choices for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a rich person myself I cannot stand private school parents. They absolutely positively think their kids are too special to go to school with kids without money and don’t think their kids can possibly learn something and be better off from the experience. It’s pathetic.

That is why financial aid programs exist. Not sure what your beef is.

The top DC privates are not overrun with poor kids on financial aid and you know it.

Some of us would say so. Financial aid is extremely generous.

At Sidwell, 77 percent of student are full pay at $60k while the other 23 percent pay on average $20k. How “generous” is that? The average “poor” kid pays $20k a year for high school.

What a joke. These are rich kid schools. Full stop. And everyone knows it, including the kids. I did not want that for my own rich kids.

No one is making you send your kids to private schools. This seems like pages of absurdly obvious comments that gets extended by folks confirming the clear. Private schools are expensive and therefore exclusionary, but for financial aid. Hard stop. No one is under any kind of illusion that it's something different, it's that we are paying for a premium product because we think it's better and we can afford it. Nice restaurants don't offer financial aid and are filled with wealthy people. Is that equally problematic? I fly in business or first class...most don't. Is that an issue for you?

Wealthy people, rightly or wrongly but definitionally, can afford to purchase things that less wealthy folks cannot. Is that breaking news is some way?

Yes, but airlines or nice restaurants don’t print in their tickets or menus the label of social justice, so they are not deceiving anyone.

No idea why you think we care about social justice or socioeconomic equality.

This is just a school for our kids. We don’t care about that stuff. Move on.

But the schools you send your kids to pretend to. We prefer dealing with honest brokers.

My kids attend 2 different private school - I just reread their websites and mission statement- NOTHING about social justice. Maybe those are just the hippie dippie schools.

And you’re proud of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never spent a day wondering why rich people chose a public school over a private school for their kids. But, apparently that's how some people spend their time. Wondering why people make choices for their kids.

No one is “wondering.” We know why you do it. And that’s why we don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only way for private schools to be more economically diverse in this area to offer school vouchers so that any kid can go to any school they want and are capable of getting in. The vouchers would have to be enough to at least the tuition amount of the lowest private school. This program would force public schools to shape up their curriculum and quality if they want to stay open. Open competition is always a good thing.

Texas is starting this program next year and you can already see the MC families gaming the system to get their kids priority. Private school applications at my kids’ school was up 270% this year. Really it is taking money away from the public schools and sponsoring MC families to go to private school. My kid was already in private with ADHD - we have parents pay tuition so this is just a discount for already wealthy people. The politicians know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. It seems that socioeconomic segregation is not a problem at all for most parents.

Why would it be? The bar to entry in private school is not high enough. We would like it to be more exclusive than it already is.

I’m from a city more competitive than DC for private school. Most selective have 2-5% admit rate, less selective top tier are just shy of 15%. I totally agree!! There is still a ton of bad behavior I’d like to eradicate - like prolific social media use and phones in general. I wish parents would band together and decide this.

You New Yorkers really think you’re such hot shit. If you’re all that, what are you doing on a DC website?

Explore why you’re so triggered.