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Can't commit. Tuition is scary.
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Anonymous
| The smaller classes benefit ALL young kids. The public schools know it, they just can;t make it work financially. |
Anonymous
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With two working parents, we would have had to hire an afternoon sitter if our child attended our local public school. The private school was easier from a logistical standpoint. We have great options for enrichment that do not require us to have an afternoon sitter. So, the tuition is slightly offset by that. Also, we were paying a nanny during the day and that was costing as much as the private school tuition.
For us to move to a better public school district we'd have to pay more for a house. We also would pay more real estate taxes as a result. We would need to hire an afternoon sitter to pick up the kids after school. The tuition is offset, maybe not fully, but enough that we feel as though we're getting our money's worth. |
Anonymous
Wow. Private school so that you don't have to hire an afternoon sitter in addition to your nanny? Wow. |
Anonymous
| I think they said they "were" paying a nanny pre-school. So in other words - the cost of the full-time nanny is somewhat the same as the tuition. That is our situation too - so I can relate. $35K per year to our nanny and now 25K to a school (plus after-care)......... |
Anonymous
| Some of the PPs are assuming that public pre-K is available. It's not, in Montgomery County, as far as I know. |
Anonymous
I am not 11:15. Honest. But what about an honest answer from you? What school and what grade? And honestly, DC is on the wait list at 4 of the Big 4, and I haven't slept since. We literally will be putting our house on the market by Memorial Day if we don't hear anything from the schools to move to the MD suburbs/public schools. The other option we are weighing is to join Blessed Sacrament's parish, and thus hope to gain entrance to their school, but my husband is insisting that I need to convert first to Catholicism first. Your response will at least give me some measure of hope, however ultimately futile. |
Anonymous
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It's funny... PP, your anxiety resonates. We live in a close VA suburb with very good public schools. not superb-- but perfectly fine. But becasue I am an anxious parent-- and my older child (in public school K) was going through some tough stuff (we just moved, some family issues), she seems a little blue, and I freaked out and decided her school as inadequate.
So I applied for both my kids to several top private schools... pre-k and 1st. So here's what happened: the younger got into one, the older was wait-listed everywhere, I flipped out... (HOW CAN THESE FOOLS NOT SEE that they would be so incredibly lucky to have these two perfect children, etc.?) Then my older child got in off the wait list at a different school... then they BOTH got in off the wait list at a third school that I had liked very much on the tours etc. Which sort of made me feel less rejected (because obviously, *they* could care less). But you know what? By the time school number 3 called to say, "Guess what, we have spots for both your kids!," my older was loving her public school and I had started to feel like my earlier frenzy was part of some moment of temporary insanity. I remembered that I went to mediocre public schools and turned out just fine (went to tipsy topsy ivy league college & professional schools! am happy! am solvent!). I remembered that I don't really want my children to be surrounded almost entirely by the children of the very, very affluent. I remembered that I think parents should invest in their local public schools and try to improve them, not abandon them. And yeah, I remembered that a nanny still costs a whole lot less than two private school tuitions and afterschool care and summer camp. So... I said no thanks to the ritzy DC private schools. Barring some future disaster, my kids will stay in our perfectly okay public school. I'll save money. And I actually feel a whole lot saner now. Whatever you decide, PP, good luck! |
Anonymous
| Are wait lists getting shorter as people back out? |
Anonymous
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To 20:19, you should wait until June 16th when tuition is due at all the schools before you put your house on the market. You never know.
Still, you could try DC public schools. Your expectations are so low you won't be disappointed. |
Anonymous
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21:46 again. Actually, bindings dates are as follows: GDS June 1, Maret June 16th, Beauvoir and Sidwell July 1.
After those dates, the liklihood of any movement on the waitlists drops dramatically. I still think you should serously consider public school before moving. What is your local public school? |
Anonymous
| 20:19 here again. Thanks for not flaming me and for the subsequent posters' understanding. I'm not a jerk, but this whole school thing has brought out the worst in me. Our school would be Stoddert. It's really post-Stoddert that seems so scary, though even Stoddert seems to have its fair share of problems. If I had to guess, we'll try it out, and by this time next year I'll be writing you that we really will be moving or that I really have converted (hope that it's not a sin to convert to Catholicism merely for the sake of school choice). |
Anonymous
Try WES, it is so close. |
Anonymous
| Why not convert to Presbyterian? NPS is closer to you. Or Quakerism, then re-apply to Sidwell? Or better yet: take on a female lover and apply to GDS. WTH. |
Anonymous
| You could also try John Eaton. |
Anonymous
| To OP: I am having tremendous "buyers remorse" also, but what is keeping me sane is that getting into Private Pre-K is ultimately easier than in any other grade, just because of the open spots - the odds are greater. So, DH and I are conciously deciding to set the foundation now with DS and if we decide to pull out later, then DS has a greater foundation. |