Would you pay for public school?

[Anonymous]

How much would you have to pay to send your kid to the DC charter? I'm in Baltimore, and people from the county pay to send their kids to Baltimore School for the Arts, but I think that's a pretty unique situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anything in DC that would have seats for out of district kids is going to be worse than your local HS.

OP here. Surprisingly, we were offered seats in several DC public schools. We did it just to see, because I'm just not happy with our local. Never thought we'd have a chance, let alone get multiple offers.

You can only take those tuition paying spots if there is no one in residence in DC who wants it. I suspect you got a good wait list number, but if you cannot prove residency you go to the bottom of the list behind all DC residents.

[Anonymous]

Probably not. I went to High Point High School back in the day and did honors classes for the first two years and then AP classes for the final two years. Had classes with the same kids for basically all 4 years and they were the “good kids”. It was very much a school within a school. No issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You already pay about $20k per year in taxes for public school, whether you have a kid that attends or not, whether you have a kid or not.

Where is that number from?

Here's what I find:

MD K-12 budget is ~$9B https://marylandeducators.org/analyzing-gov-moores-historic-8-8-billion-education-budget/#:~:text=At%20%248.8%20billion%2C%20Moore's%20K,%241.1%20billion%20for%20school%20construction.

MCPS budget is ~$3B (47% of total budget https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/BASISOPERATING/Common/Index.aspx)

https://moco360.media/2023/03/16/school-board-president-urges-passing-of-county-executives-proposed-budget/#:~:text=If%20approved%2C%20the%20budget%20would,funds%20for%20fiscal%20year%202024.

And I don't know if the MCPS budget is somehow overlapping with the MD budget.
Looks like MCPS budget includes state funds: $0.8B / 25% of the MCPS budget comes from the state, per 2 sources:

https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/BASISOPERATING/Common/Schedule.aspx?ID=SCHC&SchedID=C3

(of course MCPS website is 5 years out of date https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/budget.aspx )


MoCo has ~1M people, so a family of 4 averages... $3B/ytr/1Mpeople * 4people/household = ~$12K/household.

Mean household income in MoCo is $172K/yr, for mean household size of 2.74, so adjust accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anything in DC that would have seats for out of district kids is going to be worse than your local HS.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You already pay about $20k per year in taxes for public school, whether you have a kid that attends or not, whether you have a kid or not.

Where is that number from?

Here's what I find:

MD K-12 budget is ~$9B https://marylandeducators.org/analyzing-gov-moores-historic-8-8-billion-education-budget/#:~:text=At%20%248.8%20billion%2C%20Moore's%20K,%241.1%20billion%20for%20school%20construction.

MCPS budget is ~$3B (47% of total budget https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/BASISOPERATING/Common/Index.aspx)

https://moco360.media/2023/03/16/school-board-president-urges-passing-of-county-executives-proposed-budget/#:~:text=If%20approved%2C%20the%20budget%20would,funds%20for%20fiscal%20year%202024.

And I don't know if the MCPS budget is somehow overlapping with the MD budget.
Looks like MCPS budget includes state funds: $0.8B / 25% of the MCPS budget comes from the state, per 2 sources:

https://apps.montgomerycountymd.gov/BASISOPERATING/Common/Schedule.aspx?ID=SCHC&SchedID=C3

(of course MCPS website is 5 years out of date https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/about/budget.aspx )


MoCo has ~1M people, so a family of 4 averages... $3B/ytr/1Mpeople * 4people/household = ~$12K/household.

Mean household income in MoCo is $172K/yr, for mean household size of 2.74, so adjust accordingly.

Really? I’m seeing $117k online.

[Anonymous]

Bowie HS is a better option than some underenrolled DC school that has 3% of its students proficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d move or choose private or homeschool over either of those options.

+1
If your home is paid off, do you not have that much more flexibility in your income to cover private tuition or even supplementing with a tutor and homeschooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d move or choose private or homeschool over either of those options.

+1
If your home is paid off, do you not have that much more flexibility in your income to cover private tuition or even supplementing with a tutor and homeschooling?

NP. That would be my suggestion as well. What year is your DC? And how much is DCPS charging? There are several privates in the area that have the IB program and offer transportation from Bowie. I would do that before paying for a potentially underperforming DCPS high school, unless you have another personal connection to that school.

[Anonymous]

We have friends with kids in Parkdale's IB program and they really like it a lot. Really small class sizes and great teachers.

I'm not sure which IB program you are zoned for but the High Schools are Central, Frederick Douglass, Laurel, Parkdale and Suitland.
Central only has 750 students.

[Anonymous]

No, as every other poster stated I would never pay to go to a DC charter or public. Pay for private or do Science & Tech, IB, Bio-Med, TAG at a local public. Another option is to sell and move (or rent) in a better district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowie HS is a better option than some underenrolled DC school that has 3% of its students proficient.

+1

There are a lot of high schools in the county that I’d try to avoid, but Bowie isn’t one of them.

[Anonymous]

It must be Banneker HS in DC.
It is a test in application only high school with a good reputation. Motivated kids, no behaviour issues, 97% AA. It might be worth it depending on how much DCPS is charging you.
I would not want to pay more than 10k per year. Teachers are supposed to be good at Banneker. High HW load. Athletics are weak.
Stronger in the humanities compared with STEM