If money was not an issue would you do Private School?

[Anonymous]

Money is an issue for us but we find private school a necessary priority and make it work.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I would aim for one of the STEM based ES/MS. DS loves STEM and his ES moves at a pace that is not challenging. But I am not so concerned that paying $40,000 for school each year is worth it. RSM and STEM clubs are less expensive.

[Anonymous]

We live in an excellent public school district, but have decided private is best.
The only negative thing I can say about our private school is that all children don’t have access to it.
It’s superior in every way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

What's with all these threads on privates? Are privates trying to drum up enrollment?

I suspect its all the stuff going on in MCPS - violence, rapes, assaults... those kinds of things. And, lack of any individualized attention and crummy new curriculum. And, no text books.

Expect this to get much worse (in both MoCo and in NOVA).

[Anonymous]

We send to private but it hasn’t been worth the nearly $35,000 we pay annually, we will be back in public next school year.

[Anonymous]

We started the application process this year for our rising 7th grader, but she was dead set against it and we couldn’t convince her otherwise (probably since we were on the fence ourselves). We have some concerns about our school system’s governance, but our school pyramid is very good. We can afford private, but it doesn’t come down to cost alone.

[Anonymous]

We can afford private but choose public. I grew up as the kid on financial aid at a fancy private school, and while I did very well, most of my classmates have had issues replicating the high standard of living they are used to as adults. I want my kids to be better grounded in reality.

[Anonymous]

We did public until it wasn't working for our child any more. Money was never an issue, but we loved our public elementary and believe in strong public schools. We went to public schools ourselves. In hindsight, my love for it should not have overshadowed my child's best fit.

[Anonymous]

No. I would hire a governess for 1:1 teaching. Or teaching a small, select group of kids.

[Anonymous]

We did public for elementary and middle, but want something different for our child. So private school it is. We were tired of the school fights, passive aggressive behavior, insults being hurled on the playground, bullying, no interest from parents to make solid friendships, and our child wasn’t thriving with any friendships either. So now we think we’ve found a better fit socially, academically, etc. No school is perfect and we loved our public school to a degree, but when your kid comes home unhappy every day, it’s a sign that things need to change. We are grateful at being accepted into the private schools we applied for and looking forward to starting fresh, and divorcing ourselves from the past.

[Anonymous]

Public school fan here. We could easily afford private for our youngest, as we significantly overfunded our older kids’ 529s, but I can’t think of any good reason to do it. Our older kids got a great education in our MCPS district, had an great peer group, enjoyed their HS years and are doing very well at excellent colleges. It’s a moot question in our case as our youngest turned down spots at MS magnets because he didn’t want to be apart from his friends, and I can’t imagine there would be any way to convince him that private would be preferable. We love that he has a lot of close friends from school in our neighborhood as well, which has led to us having friendships with a number of parents in walking distance of our house.

I completely understand switching to private if your kid is unhappy or struggling in public, but there are so many advantages to a public for an adaptable kid, including learning early how to navigate a bigger world with a much larger cross-section of humanity. I haven’t seen any difference in college readiness between our older kids and their college friends and classmates who went to Big 3 schools. I tend to think that smart kids with involved parents will do well wherever they go, and I don’t want to our kids to have the mindset that they need to have the best, most exclusive experience to do well and be happy.

[Anonymous]

No, but we like our public school in NOVA. The whole process of applying to private school seems exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Money not an issue at all—HHI in the millions.

Always planned to stay in public school but now moving our oldest to private for HS. We are in a small district (125 kids/grade) and the issue we are having is that my son is the only high-achieving boy in his grade. His honors classes are almost entirely girls and none of the other boys are getting As. It’s weird to me. So, we are moving him to a more “academic” school in the hope that he finds more kids like him.

[Anonymous]

I would definitely send my kids to private of money were not an issue. FCPS has been such a disappointment.

[Anonymous]

I went to a private school from 5th through 12th grade and I was mostly unhappy. The school was so insular and small and I did not like the snobbeey and small minded classmates