families switching from private to public?

[Anonymous]

This year we moved our three kids from a private school that we loved to our in boudry public schools. The started the public schools in grades k, 1st and 6th grade last week. We had to make that move. Unfortunatly private school was not an option for us this year. We are both self employed and have lost a signifigant amount of our income due to lacking business and business restructuring. We were so releived when me made this decision to go public late spring after we signed the contract and payed the deposit. It was like a weight was lifted off of our sholders beacuse we did not know how we were going to pay the tuition. We informed the private school that we could not send them this year. They were sad but we knew it was the right decision. We have been paying full tuition for over six years and knew we could not do it this year.

Our in boundry public schools are ok and I know my children will be fine thier so I am very happy with the decision. My oldest son is very happy with the decision. He is enjoying middle school so far. His class sizes are very large. Their are 40 students in his math, social studies, and ILA Classes. Last year the class size average was between 25-28 students in a class. The school said that they are so large this year and larger than they have ever been is due to the fact that so many private school students are now attending this public school. I saw several parents that I knew from their previous private school are his orientation. Even at my younger children's public emenetary school they have so many students from their previous private as well as other area privates that are now attending this public this school year. In several of my 1st graders closest friends from his previous private are now attening his public. I know for a fact that in my in boundry elementary and middle schools there are several families that have left our previous private school which not attend the local public. I am not sure the reason for others but for me it was a financial decision.

[Anonymous]

12:53: I’d love to talk to you a little more, if you’d be willing, on the phone or by email. Again it’s birnbaumm(at)washpost(dot)com or 703-443-6850. Wouldn’t necessarily have to include you in my story, but it’s great to speak to as many people as possible even if they don’t want to be in the paper. There are definitely a lot of great public schools in the Washington area, and I’d have to think that would cushion any decision to switch, even if there are big differences like the ones you mentioned about class sizes.

11:51: Sorry to hear the trouble you had in FCPS. Certainly Fairfax has a good reputation overall, but any big public school system is going to be much more inconsistent than the cozier confines of a private school. Which is one of the reasons to switch to private, I suppose.

12:08: Perhaps demography does have some part in it – even though the growth in families moving to the area has slowed, the ones who did move are still having plenty of babies who are entering schools. But the data that I’m citing is specifically people transferring from private to public, not overall growth in the public school systems (which is happening, too, except in DCPS, where students continue to stream to charters).

Best,
Michael B.

[Anonymous]

Michael, a small piece of the story might be applications to the area magnet programs in MCPS - elementary, MS and HS. If families are moving from private schools, might they also be trying to apply to the magnets?

Another piece of the story might be whether private schools are trying to make financial aid more accessible to current families so they don't have to leave, which could explain the lack of departure. This would mean less $$ for new students, in lower grades, and could lead to a differentiated pattern of departures depending on grade level.

We moved one child from private to magnet to private again. This seems to be a very unusual pattern; people seem to choose private OR public and then feel wedded to it for the duration.

[Anonymous]

Michael, if you are looking region-wide, I'd take a look at all of the close-in VA school systems as well. I've heard anecdotally that Arlington is holding its own, but the budget cuts in Alexandria and Fairfax have made people who can afford private schools consider private schools. It's possible that the downward economic effects on the quality of the public schools, and concomitant enrollment shifts to private from public, may balance out the economic effects on the individuals who can no longer pay private tuitions, and concomitant shift from private to public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another piece of the story might be whether private schools are trying to make financial aid more accessible to current families so they don't have to leave, which could explain the lack of departure. This would mean less $$ for new students, in lower grades, and could lead to a differentiated pattern of departures depending on grade level.

I know at least one private that did this last year - they basically told all current families that they didn't want them to leave for financial reasons, and to please come ask for help before making any decisions. Many did, and the school ended up increasing its financial aid contribution by (if I remember correctly) about 30%!! An amazing commitment to maintaining their community of families in tough times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved one child from private to magnet to private again. This seems to be a very unusual pattern; people seem to choose private OR public and then feel wedded to it for the duration.

We are considering a move from private to magnet. Does your experience suggest that there are unexpected issues?

[Anonymous]

This is a little off-thread, but we did not find unexpected issues. My experience is with the ES magnet for 4th and 5th in MCPS, which was fantastic. The admissions seems to have been based almost totally (if not totally) on the test score, and the county has a process that, while geared to reaching out to the public schools, can be easily intersected by individual parents. You just need to contact them and self-nominate, and get your child to the testing on the prescribed date.

Academically, it was very challenging, and much more challenging than if my child had remained private. But I mean challenging in the best sense - not a problem. (There was a lot of homework, which I don't like, but I have to admit that it was mostly good quality homework.) Kids come from many different schools, so it is not the same as entering a grade where everyone knows each other.

The school was extremely well run. It routinely is ranked the top school in Maryland, and this is by test scores, but it was all around a great place. Trade offs: no PE or foreign language. These are real.

We went back to private, and there were more issues this direction. Also, we have some experience applying to HS magnet from private. Can pick up on those if anyone is interested but, as I said, the whole topic is not directly relevant to the posting.

[Anonymous]

19:41 - NP here - I found your posts very interesting. Would you be willing to start a new thread in either this forum or in the Schools General Discussion forum? I would love to hear more.

[Anonymous]

OP, We've gone in the other direction, out of a down county MCPS middle school to homeschooling (yes, I was that unhappy) and now to private. Just to add to the mix, there are many families with gifted kids who are choosing to homeschool because the school system isn't meeting their needs and families believe they can do better on their own.

[Anonymous]

OP, also didn't DCPS shift MS to 6th grade? I heard that many people at our private left after 5th due to this shift and not finances necessarily...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The school was extremely well run. It routinely is ranked the top school in Maryland, and this is by test scores, but it was all around a great place. Trade offs: no PE or foreign language. These are real.

19:41 I also find your posting very relevant and would like to hear more.

I was a bit surprised by the above comment, since I tend to think that both PE and foreign language are relatively easy to supplement (compared to english, math, science, history etc.) and from what I hear in many of the private schools language instruction in the lower grades is quite weak. I guess your school must be strong in languages.

[Anonymous]

Hello again –

13:35 – Certainly it’s worth paying attention to the magnets. This would probably be reflected in overall numbers as well.

I think you’re exactly right that private schools are doing everything they can to extend financial aid to current students. A lot of them are simply spending more money on financial aid in total, so that would offset the impact on incoming students a bit, but you’d think that something’s gotta give at some point – schools are hurting financially almost as much as their families, and there’s only so much money most of them can give to their students. It might lead to more people leaving from lower grades; it might also simply mean that incoming students skew richer than the school’s general population. I haven’t yet found a school that’s willing to admit that to me, but I’m looking.

17:27 – I’m definitely looking all over the region. The Virginia public school systems don’t do a fantastic job of keeping track of private school students transferring in and public schools students transferring out, but I’ve been reaching out to some of the private schools as well.

Great to hear all these thoughts!
Michael

[Anonymous]

DH lost his job today. DD has been told all summer (even though we've been hurting financially) that she'll continue at her private school, but really, I'm not sure we're going to be able to pull this off.

We've been up talking about whether to take DD out of her school now in time for enrollment at the nearby public. It's really painful. Especially since the tuition contract would require her to attend 2 weeks of classes first before withdrawing her. I don't understand that policy. It seems there must be a better way to avoid humiliating a child.

[Anonymous]

PP - PLEASE contact the school's admissions director and tell her what has happened. The school might have a little financial aid leftover or some flexibility in the payment plan. I certainly can't imagine any educator wanting to humiliate a child. Remember that the school can't help unless they know what's going on, right?

FWIW, I'm an Admissions Director and we have "squeezed the turnip" beyond its normal squeezability to help families financially this year

[Anonymous]

From 22:28 to 23:01, thank you for the good advice. We're going to make that call tomorrow.

Argh, won't this recession ever end? I really thought we had managed to get through it with only minor damage.