Is private school worth it?

[Anonymous]

I've had kids in private for 10 years and over the years there's been kids moving in and out of the school for a variety of reasons. A few did trickle in from various publics and to be honest, the kids really didn't give it a second thought. Most of the parents didn't either. Most people are busy and (not being negative here...) and so wrapped up in their own world they really won't pay attention to where your kids went to ES. As long as you don't make a big deal out of it, no one else will. There are snarky people everywhere and anyone who is snarking about your kids coming from DCPS are probably snarking about everyone else's kids for one thing or the other.

If you are asking for advice, I would say to keep saving your money so you have the private option if you want it. If you like your kid's school, then fine... you don't have to answer to anyone else about it. If you kids never set foot in private school then your kids have a nice college fund. I wouldn't just give the money away or feel guilty about saving it for my kids. There's no better investment than your own children.

[Anonymous]

On average, studies show that most benefits of private school accrue to children from low income homes. When you control for family income, most of the benefits of private school disappear.

However, your children are individuals, not averages. If you have an underachiever or an average student, smaller class sizes and greater personal attention could make a real difference. i think the wait and see people have the right idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On average, studies show that most benefits of private school accrue to children from low income homes. When you control for family income, most of the benefits of private school disappear.

However, your children are individuals, not averages. If you have an underachiever or an average student, smaller class sizes and greater personal attention could make a real difference. i think the wait and see people have the right idea.

This is really interesting. Do you have links to the studies you mention? Are you speaking of parochial schools or of independent private schools? I haven't seen this research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On average, studies show that most benefits of private school accrue to children from low income homes. When you control for family income, most of the benefits of private school disappear.

However, your children are individuals, not averages. If you have an underachiever or an average student, smaller class sizes and greater personal attention could make a real difference. i think the wait and see people have the right idea.

OP here-- That is very interesting! It sounds like something from Freakonomics, I think-- something like the school a child attends is far less important than the level of schooling of the mother. But of course, as you say, childern are not averages-- and each school is unique.

[Anonymous]

OP, contact me, we have several variables in common and in fact I wonder if we might know each other. I can give you personal perspective on this, I've done a lot of thinking on this exact topic. Happy to talk it over with you.

[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Please share perspectives, there are a lot of other people on this site that would appreciate insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On average, studies show that most benefits of private school accrue to children from low income homes. When you control for family income, most of the benefits of private school disappear.

However, your children are individuals, not averages. If you have an underachiever or an average student, smaller class sizes and greater personal attention could make a real difference. i think the wait and see people have the right idea.

I agree with the bolded part. My kids have been in both public and private schools. They are all in the average to slightly ahead of their peer group. The personalized attention and small class sizes (15 kids max) were the main benefit that I noticed. I put them in MCPS when we moved to the DC area. Private school in the rest of the country does not cost 30k per kid.

They are now fine in public school, but it is frustrating to hear a teacher say, "well your son has problems with proactively answering questions, so I never call on him. I can't prompt him for participation because he is ahead of grade level."

If the private school you are considering has 20+ kids per class, many classes per grade, I'm not sure that it would be worth it for most upper and upper-middle class families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've gone through public school my whole life, but we live in DC on Capitol hill and it seems like many friends in DC have their children attend private school, so I have been saving up for that in anticipation of moving our kid's into private for middle and high school. We make a bit less than $200 HHI. No debt other than our mortgage, and we aren't big spenders (minimal travel, used car, Craigslist furniture, etc.) Instead, we save for retirement and college, etc. and we also give a lot of money to charitable organizations.

In fact, what is spurring this question right now is that our favorite charitable organization is seeking a lot of money from its donors in its capital campaign -- and when I think of all the good our money could do with the charitable organization . . . well, I just wonder. Maybe giving that money to the charity that we've earmarked to use for private school would be OK and the kids would attend Latin or DCBASIS (if they can get in! what if lottery doesn't work for them? and we've given away the private school nest egg!?) or some other good public school and they will be great.

Our kids are at our local DCPS neighborhood school for elementary, and doing very well there, but when I meet kids that attend private schools, they have a wonderful confidence that I want my kids to have also. Any recommendations? i am thinking of having the kids tested to see what kind of private schools would be a good fit for them. OR should I seek out an education consultant? Recommendations?

Thanks!

An old adage: charity begins at home. Take a good look at the public middle school in your neighborhood. It is most likely where your DC will be attending. Don't count on being lucky w/ a lottery. Look on line at that school's reading and math scores as well as the poverty rate. consider carefully what kind of kid you want your child having sex with in HS, because he or she will have sex in HS. Now, what charity is it again?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Look on line at that school's reading and math scores as well as the poverty rate. consider carefully what kind of kid you want your child having sex with in HS, because he or she will have sex in HS. Now, what charity is it again?????

Another poster inadvertently reminding me why I'm glad we chose public school.

[Anonymous]

"Is private school worth it?" Well, I'm not sure it's "worth" $30,000, exactly (sheesh, couldn't they do it for a BIT less??!?) but now that it's done and we've paid the $30,000 we don't have regrets.

I'm at times flabbergasted by how great the curriculum is. It's just really great, very thought provoking and well meshed. The teachers are so good. I love how technology is used in the classroom and how well that fits with DC's personality, skills and interests. Even something like P.E. is enhancing DC's life -- learning actual athletic skills (how to play field hockey, the rules for volleyball, whatever). Learning to read music and play instruments in music class, looking at music theory and history (not just singing some random songs with a 6-hour per week freelance musician a couple of times a week). Art studios that you wish you could take a class in.

I like the small class sizes (12 or so) and the fact that every teacher knows DC so well (skills and weaknesses). The communications with parents are awesome (the calendar planned a year in advance).

Considering our other options, yes, this was the right thing to do for now. I reevaluate all the time and think about what else we could be doing with the money for tuition. Things are tight, we don't have cleaners anymore, we hardly ever eat out, we don't eat as much meat. We buy most of our clothes at thrift stores. Our cars are crap. That said we still support the same charities that we did before. We just don't save much, if anything, except for our retirement.

[Anonymous]

I think it entirely depends on the private school. Some of them aren't worth squat.

Been there done that.

[Anonymous]

Only the best ones are worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Is private school worth it?" Well, I'm not sure it's "worth" $30,000, exactly (sheesh, couldn't they do it for a BIT less??!?) but now that it's done and we've paid the $30,000 we don't have regrets.

I'm at times flabbergasted by how great the curriculum is. It's just really great, very thought provoking and well meshed. The teachers are so good. I love how technology is used in the classroom and how well that fits with DC's personality, skills and interests. Even something like P.E. is enhancing DC's life -- learning actual athletic skills (how to play field hockey, the rules for volleyball, whatever). Learning to read music and play instruments in music class, looking at music theory and history (not just singing some random songs with a 6-hour per week freelance musician a couple of times a week). Art studios that you wish you could take a class in.

I like the small class sizes (12 or so) and the fact that every teacher knows DC so well (skills and weaknesses). The communications with parents are awesome (the calendar planned a year in advance).

Considering our other options, yes, this was the right thing to do for now. I reevaluate all the time and think about what else we could be doing with the money for tuition. Things are tight, we don't have cleaners anymore, we hardly ever eat out, we don't eat as much meat. We buy most of our clothes at thrift stores. Our cars are crap. That said we still support the same charities that we did before. We just don't save much, if anything, except for our retirement.

don't you save for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Is private school worth it?" Well, I'm not sure it's "worth" $30,000, exactly (sheesh, couldn't they do it for a BIT less??!?) but now that it's done and we've paid the $30,000 we don't have regrets.

I'm at times flabbergasted by how great the curriculum is. It's just really great, very thought provoking and well meshed. The teachers are so good. I love how technology is used in the classroom and how well that fits with DC's personality, skills and interests. Even something like P.E. is enhancing DC's life -- learning actual athletic skills (how to play field hockey, the rules for volleyball, whatever). Learning to read music and play instruments in music class, looking at music theory and history (not just singing some random songs with a 6-hour per week freelance musician a couple of times a week). Art studios that you wish you could take a class in.

I like the small class sizes (12 or so) and the fact that every teacher knows DC so well (skills and weaknesses). The communications with parents are awesome (the calendar planned a year in advance).

Considering our other options, yes, this was the right thing to do for now. I reevaluate all the time and think about what else we could be doing with the money for tuition. Things are tight, we don't have cleaners anymore, we hardly ever eat out, we don't eat as much meat. We buy most of our clothes at thrift stores. Our cars are crap. That said we still support the same charities that we did before. We just don't save much, if anything, except for our retirement.

what school is this? sounds great?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Is private school worth it?" Well, I'm not sure it's "worth" $30,000, exactly (sheesh, couldn't they do it for a BIT less??!?) but now that it's done and we've paid the $30,000 we don't have regrets.

I'm at times flabbergasted by how great the curriculum is. It's just really great, very thought provoking and well meshed. The teachers are so good. I love how technology is used in the classroom and how well that fits with DC's personality, skills and interests. Even something like P.E. is enhancing DC's life -- learning actual athletic skills (how to play field hockey, the rules for volleyball, whatever). Learning to read music and play instruments in music class, looking at music theory and history (not just singing some random songs with a 6-hour per week freelance musician a couple of times a week). Art studios that you wish you could take a class in.

I like the small class sizes (12 or so) and the fact that every teacher knows DC so well (skills and weaknesses). The communications with parents are awesome (the calendar planned a year in advance).

Considering our other options, yes, this was the right thing to do for now. I reevaluate all the time and think about what else we could be doing with the money for tuition. Things are tight, we don't have cleaners anymore, we hardly ever eat out, we don't eat as much meat. We buy most of our clothes at thrift stores. Our cars are crap. That said we still support the same charities that we did before. We just don't save much, if anything, except for our retirement.

I'd like to offer a quick comment on the idea that one must always save for college before considering spending money on private school. My brother determined that he could not afford to do both and so he saved only for college and put his kids in public schools. I realize this story is terribly anecdotal, BUT, his kids had a terrible schooling experience for a variety of reasons. None of the three ended up being able to attend college at all and many of their issues could have been better addressed in an environment where the classes were small, the teachers knew and understood the various issues, the parents were better informed and involved, and so forth. So think carefully about your own children and how they learn and what their strengths and weaknesses are ... only a small proportion of students would fall into the situation of my brother's children. But some do and in those instances, getting them successfully through high school is more important than whether they might need to take out loans or defer college attendance for a few years to work or join the army or something to raise the cash.


don't you save for college?