Private school of you live in a great public school district?

[Anonymous]

We live in Fairfax County in a great school district, but have chosen to educate our children in a parochial school for several of the reasons mentioned by PPs: religious education, smaller class size, tighter-knit community, good fit for our children's personalities and for our family's personality. I also love that there is major emphasis placed on values in our children's school -- manners, good behavior, empathy, courtesy, charity, etc. We're not extremely religious people, but do like the values that come part and parcel with a religious education. I'm not sure what we'll do when our children reach high school. I will definitely give public school another look before then.

[Anonymous]

Not all parochial schools have small class size. At least that's the case in Montgomery Co. Also, when private schools have low budgets, or low tuition, watch out, sometimes the academics can be worse than public.

[Anonymous]

I personally think it's silly to send a kid to private school if you live in a great public school district UNLESS 1) you're looking for religious education; 2) your child has a special need; or 3) your child has a special talent. Our kids will eventually be out in the world working with people who went to ordinary public schools without all the bells and whistles that public schools offer around here. Guess what -- many of these kids from modest schools will be our kids' bosses.

Yes, teaching to the test is a problem but I know lots of kids in Northern Virginia (Arlington, Falls Church) who are learning just fine, and who love school. And when your kids are adults, do you really think they'll say, "If only I'd gone to private school, I could have learned X?"

I grew up in an area just like this and attended a high school considered one of the country's best. To this day, in the area where I grew up (think N. Arlington, McLean, Bethesda, Chevy Chase), no one bothers with private schools because the public schools are of such high quality. This is truly a crazy DC area obsession.