Crazy to move from BCC cluster ES to Janney/Deal/Wilson for schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

That's a great point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

OP there are just as many special needs kids in DCPS as MoCo. You can't use demographics to escape that. And by high school, when instruction matters more, there will be honors and APs for your snowflakes. Frankly moving to DCPS as some sort of panacea strikes me as very odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

OP here. These are all good points. I might swing over to the MD schools forum and ask the reciprocal question and see the responses I get.

Most of the families I have met in Bethesda that moved up from DC for schools (and there actually are not that many), did so because either their house was not in a location where DCPS could be relied upon at all or their kids have special needs. With that said, I do know a former DCPS teacher who won many awards that up and quit teaching because DCPS administration was horrible. So there's that angle too.

[Anonymous]

OP why aren't you considering private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

Maybe OP has several kids and knows how crazy expensive privates in our area can be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

Could you not find wealthier grandparents to cover private tuition just for a fewvyears?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

Understood, I happily send my kids to public school. I asked about private though because you seem to have very specific desires in a school and you might be setting yourself up for disappointment whether you stay in MD or come to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

OP here. These are all good points. I might swing over to the MD schools forum and ask the reciprocal question and see the responses I get.

Most of the families I have met in Bethesda that moved up from DC for schools (and there actually are not that many), did so because either their house was not in a location where DCPS could be relied upon at all or their kids have special needs. With that said, I do know a former DCPS teacher who won many awards that up and quit teaching because DCPS administration was horrible. So there's that angle too.

Based on my cohort of friends it is not rare for people to move from DC to Moco with schools being a very significant factor in that decision. Even if you were correct that these people were zoned for weaker DCPS schools (which I don't think is necessarily accurate) these families could just have easily chosen to move to Janney or another Deal/Wilson feeder rather than moving to Montgomery County. While DC schools have made a lot of progress recently, plenty of people still have concerns about the schools, particularly once you get to Deal and then even more so Wilson. And there is a real concern about government/administration and how that will effect schools going forward. (Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to question Montgomery County's governance, but between the two I have slightly more faith in Montgomery than DC.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

OP here. These are all good points. I might swing over to the MD schools forum and ask the reciprocal question and see the responses I get.

Most of the families I have met in Bethesda that moved up from DC for schools (and there actually are not that many), did so because either their house was not in a location where DCPS could be relied upon at all or their kids have special needs. With that said, I do know a former DCPS teacher who won many awards that up and quit teaching because DCPS administration was horrible. So there's that angle too.

Based on my cohort of friends it is not rare for people to move from DC to Moco with schools being a very significant factor in that decision. Even if you were correct that these people were zoned for weaker DCPS schools (which I don't think is necessarily accurate) these families could just have easily chosen to move to Janney or another Deal/Wilson feeder rather than moving to Montgomery County. While DC schools have made a lot of progress recently, plenty of people still have concerns about the schools, particularly once you get to Deal and then even more so Wilson. And there is a real concern about government/administration and how that will effect schools going forward. (Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to question Montgomery County's governance, but between the two I have slightly more faith in Montgomery than DC.)

I'm not so sure about that. MD has a Republican governor who just decided to shorten the school year to benefit business interests. Who knows what's next...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

OP here. These are all good points. I might swing over to the MD schools forum and ask the reciprocal question and see the responses I get.

Most of the families I have met in Bethesda that moved up from DC for schools (and there actually are not that many), did so because either their house was not in a location where DCPS could be relied upon at all or their kids have special needs. With that said, I do know a former DCPS teacher who won many awards that up and quit teaching because DCPS administration was horrible. So there's that angle too.

Based on my cohort of friends it is not rare for people to move from DC to Moco with schools being a very significant factor in that decision. Even if you were correct that these people were zoned for weaker DCPS schools (which I don't think is necessarily accurate) these families could just have easily chosen to move to Janney or another Deal/Wilson feeder rather than moving to Montgomery County. While DC schools have made a lot of progress recently, plenty of people still have concerns about the schools, particularly once you get to Deal and then even more so Wilson. And there is a real concern about government/administration and how that will effect schools going forward. (Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to question Montgomery County's governance, but between the two I have slightly more faith in Montgomery than DC.)

I'm not so sure about that. MD has a Republican governor who just decided to shorten the school year to benefit business interests. Who knows what's next...

I would be much more concerned about either the DC and/or Montgomery County councils focusing so heavily on closing the achievement gap so that schools already performing well/acceptably are an after thought than I would whether a Republican (heaven forbid, especially when his policies bear no resemblance to the neanderthals/obstructionists in the Republican Congress/Pres ticket) governor slightly shifts the school calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I agree about the trajectory of DC vs. MoCo. However, keep in mind that the combo of a great elementary school that most kids in the neighborhood attend (vs. private or charter), low inventory, suburban feel, and metro access means that there is keen competition for homes zoned for Janney--take a look at some of the recent AU Park threads over in Real Estate. Actually, all neighborhoods zoned for Deal/Wilson are hot markets. In addition to a little bit more diversity, you may want to consider casting a wider net during your home search, given the competition in AU Park and other areas.

OP here. Thanks for the sincere response. It is not to brag or anything, but there are actually a couple of very nice and suitable houses for us in AU Park under contract right now that are equivalent or less than our current house, so hot market or not, I think we should be okay. I am also sort of sensing we may be nearing the end of the Obama business cycle/bull market and it seems possible a recession could be soon. In any event, this is a DCPS schools forum so we should focus on that.

Seems that everyone agrees, Janney is good but a little crowded. Deal is great but a little crowded. Wilson is good, but also crowded. Comparatively though, the crowding is nowhere near what we see in MCPS. For example, my ES could be at 120% capacity in two years. DCPS also has teachers and aids in each room and in some cases two certified teachers for the large classes, we don't have this in MCPS at all.

In terms of teaching quality, its a bit apples to oranges. There seems to be agreement that there is a wider skills gaps within each classroom for typical NW DCPS students (most likely related to SES), however MCPS has way more special needs and ESOL kids that hurts overall learning. On top of that, we have Curriculum 2.0 bringing us down, but we also have HGCs if you get in. Probably a bit of a wash. If I had a special needs or ESOL kid though, it seems I would probably rather be in MCPS instead.

Facilities wise, I think MCPS has DCPS beat. Socially and "fit" wise, it is still unknown. So I will need to look into it more, visit the schools and do more research.

Thanks again everyone.

Remember, your "consensus" comes mostly from dcps parents bc it is the dcps forum. If you posted in md, you would have a different demographic to a degree and you would probably have gotten more stories about people happy to have moved from dcps to moco. Both populations have an interest (conscious and not) to validate their own decisions.

Not necessarily disagreeing with your ultimate conclusions, but not sure that there is really a consensus on any of these issues.

OP here. These are all good points. I might swing over to the MD schools forum and ask the reciprocal question and see the responses I get.

Most of the families I have met in Bethesda that moved up from DC for schools (and there actually are not that many), did so because either their house was not in a location where DCPS could be relied upon at all or their kids have special needs. With that said, I do know a former DCPS teacher who won many awards that up and quit teaching because DCPS administration was horrible. So there's that angle too.

Based on my cohort of friends it is not rare for people to move from DC to Moco with schools being a very significant factor in that decision. Even if you were correct that these people were zoned for weaker DCPS schools (which I don't think is necessarily accurate) these families could just have easily chosen to move to Janney or another Deal/Wilson feeder rather than moving to Montgomery County. While DC schools have made a lot of progress recently, plenty of people still have concerns about the schools, particularly once you get to Deal and then even more so Wilson. And there is a real concern about government/administration and how that will effect schools going forward. (Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of reasons to question Montgomery County's governance, but between the two I have slightly more faith in Montgomery than DC.)

I'm not so sure about that. MD has a Republican governor who just decided to shorten the school year to benefit business interests. Who knows what's next...

Hopefully, next comes charter schools...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

Could you not find wealthier grandparents to cover private tuition just for a fewvyears?

NP: But, what? "Hey, Mom, could you fork over a portion of your social security check so I can send my kids to a ridiculously overpriced private school?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

Could you not find wealthier grandparents to cover private tuition just for a fewvyears?

NP: But, what? "Hey, Mom, could you fork over a portion of your social security check so I can send my kids to a ridiculously overpriced private school?"

Hah, I read it as "Mom, could you ditch dad and find a sugar daddy to mooch off to pay for my kids ridiculously overpriced private school?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP why aren't you considering private school?

OP here. Have you seen private school tuition costs? The idea of paying $36k+ per year for the next 10 years and then paying for college is not something that I would like to do. I know that there are some privates that are cheaper, but most of those are parochial schools and I honestly do not believe that parochial schools provide any better educational outcomes than good publics. In fact, many are probably worse considering teachers don't have to be certified, etc. So that leaves us with the "top" privates and they entry point there is generally about $36k and above. Paying $400k for education before even getting to college is like wow. And then, what if either DH or I are unemployed at some point. If we stretched things to make private work, a normal period of unemployment of 3-6 months would necessitate going back to public anyways. So while we are well off by nearly all measures, we are certainly not rich enough to attend the type of private school that would make the type of difference we are hoping for.

Could you not find wealthier grandparents to cover private tuition just for a fewvyears?

NP: But, what? "Hey, Mom, could you fork over a portion of your social security check so I can send my kids to a ridiculously overpriced private school?"

OP here. I am pretty sure that they were joking.

I think the points raised about governance in both DC and MD are very valid. The nuclear bomb in all of this is mandatory bussing, but I don't think either government is dumb enough to do that. So they will continue to chip away at the edges to make life miserable for everyone. This may sound cruel, but in DC at least due to gentrification and charter schools, the political force behind closing the achievement gap within DCPS is declining and every year that risk recedes a bti. In MCPS however it is rising, due to significant demographic changes in the eastern and northern parts of the county. On a 5 or 10 year time horizon I think situations will be very different and I am trying to incorporate this into my decision making.

I've been doing a bit more research and its a bit disconcerting that Janney is currently at 110% capacity. I need to get better classroom level data, but I am not sure that level of crowding helps us out much from our current situation.
http://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/publication/attachments/Janney.pdf

Although I do like CCDC, the commuting options are not great and Lafayette is just too big. So that leaves Murch as an alternative that some have suggested. I may need to consider that as another viable option.

But frankly, if schools are not going to be better in DCPS on the main issue of overcrowding, then I am not sure it would make a lot of sense to move.