How many of you send your kids to private school versus public?

[Anonymous]

I have only been on the site a few months but appears from the inquiries and responses most people are upper middle class, do you send your child to private school and why?

[Anonymous]

Because they are so much better than public schools in many cases. I feel that you get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Small classes (16-20 kids in our school with 2 teachers and class divided into smaller groups during the day), PE every day, art, music and drama twice a week, beautiful buildings, state of the art technology in every classroom...
FWIW we are not wealthy and live modestly in order to afford school for our kids. It is a choice we made and we have no regrets.

[Anonymous]

In most cases, it comes down to a personal decision (which schools align best with values/needs/etc.). Luckily, this area has great public and private schools. Personally, I know too many families who have put themselves into long-term financial jeopardy to "afford" the really expensive privates (and still feel poor b/c of the vast wealth they see all around).

[Anonymous]

I have one in each. Both DC's started out in a highly touted MCPS program. Unfortunately, it was all a "Potemkin Village" as far as we were concerned. Lot's of hype, very little substance....not even a plan to test for substance. After months (years?) of sleepless nights worrying that their childhood and educational opportunities were slipping away we decided to apply to private. (Still sleepless-but now over the ever climbing tuition rates.) Private made a huge difference in DC #1. Unfortunately, after a few years he decided he really wanted to go back to his public. There were things he didn't like about his private anymore. FWIW, he didn't want to leave his public in the first place, it was our decision. Then we sent DC#2 to private after having the same experience at public as DC#1. Still there and loves it. So do we. The drawback for us is social. In both privates, the grade sizes are around 50 students. DC's find that too small. Luckily though DC#2 has a lot of great kids in the grade. DC#1 not so many.

[Anonymous]

I plan to send my DS (who is now 14mos, so obviously things can change!) to the public schools here in Arlington. DS's cousins have had wonderful experiences in the Arlington public schools, and, from what I have seen so far, I've been impressed as well. I'm not sure what I'd do if I lived in a county where I wasn't quite as impressed by the schools.

As an aside, I'm thinking longingly of the day when we're not paying for daycare - replacing that payment with a tuition check is not at all appealing!

[Anonymous]

I can't afford a private school, so public for us. Plus, when I did an internship at a private school while getting my education degree I honestly saw a lot of negatives and positives, none of which seemed to justify the cost.

To each their own, but private schools just aren't for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have only been on the site a few months but appears from the inquiries and responses most people are upper middle class, do you send your child to private school and why?

Both my boys are in private. They have learning disabilities but are not doing bad enough for public to give them an IDP.

Their school has small class size (12 for the 3rd grader and 18 for the 5th grader).

Classes are boy oriented - class often go outside. Recess (or breaks) 3 or 4 times a day - gym 4 out of 5 days.

This model has greatly enhanced our son's desire to go to school - went from hating school to loving school.

Like another posted said - we are now financially strapped - vacations, new carpet and nice cars are suffering. My husband works more than we like - we figure we have about 4 more years of this.

[Anonymous]

Beacuse our DCPS is not a good school.

[Anonymous]

Because we struck a big old ZERO in the DCPS lottery system for PK. We weren't willing to put our kid in a bad DCPS school, so we put our name in for only good and excellent schools, all out of boundary.

Now that DD is in amazing private school (PK-12), we are not going to leave. We can afford it (meaning, we can still max out retirement, save for college, and pay the mortgage, etc.). Otherwise, we'd be in NoVa or Mont Co.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS elementary -is- one of the 3 or 4 best but we still chose private.

I hate, with every fiber of my being, what NCLB has done to the "curriculum" and the general school day, even in supposedly awesome districts like the 2 that people are always telling us to move into so we can "save that tuition money for ___".

It's worse in DCPS, of course, where you have gigantic disparity among the student body and so all (curricular and instructional) attention is paid -- appropriately -- to the kids who need the most assistance. However after a lot of study and discussion, I'm not wowed by what's going on at the elementary level in my neighboring districts, either. [I feel different about H.S., though]

So yeah, we opted out.

[Anonymous]

MCPS - because its a very good school system and we have a very good elementary school, ms and hs. I bought a house specifically to take advantage of good public schools. I like knowing kids in my neighborhood that go to the public school in my neighborhood. Neither my husband nor I went to private school, and, frankly, I am uncomfortable with the gobs of money crowd that exists in many (not all) private schools as well as certain subsets of helicopter moms (and to a lesser extent, dads) that appear to be more prevalent in private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS elementary -is- one of the 3 or 4 best but we still chose private.

I hate, with every fiber of my being, what NCLB has done to the "curriculum" and the general school day, even in supposedly awesome districts like the 2 that people are always telling us to move into so we can "save that tuition money for ___".

It's worse in DCPS, of course, where you have gigantic disparity among the student body and so all (curricular and instructional) attention is paid -- appropriately -- to the kids who need the most assistance. However after a lot of study and discussion, I'm not wowed by what's going on at the elementary level in my neighboring districts, either. [I feel different about H.S., though]

So yeah, we opted out.

*Sigh* I feel the exact same way. I hate that a parent like me, who should be the core of the public school support, is forced to go private not to get the blue blood experience but to get a non pressure cooker environment where the children develop a love of learning. DCPS seems like a punishment to kids to me, not a way to foster learning. That said, my child is very young. We are trying to get involved with our schools in order to see what we can do to strengthen them and help undo the damage of NCLB. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS elementary -is- one of the 3 or 4 best but we still chose private.

I hate, with every fiber of my being, what NCLB has done to the "curriculum" and the general school day, even in supposedly awesome districts like the 2 that people are always telling us to move into so we can "save that tuition money for ___".

It's worse in DCPS, of course, where you have gigantic disparity among the student body and so all (curricular and instructional) attention is paid -- appropriately -- to the kids who need the most assistance. However after a lot of study and discussion, I'm not wowed by what's going on at the elementary level in my neighboring districts, either. [I feel different about H.S., though]

So yeah, we opted out.

*Sigh* I feel the exact same way. I hate that a parent like me, who should be the core of the public school support, is forced to go private not to get the blue blood experience but to get a non pressure cooker environment where the children develop a love of learning. DCPS seems like a punishment to kids to me, not a way to foster learning. That said, my child is very young. We are trying to get involved with our schools in order to see what we can do to strengthen them and help undo the damage of NCLB. We'll see.

I appreciate your tone but even so this kind of statement is just so offensive.

[Anonymous]

We moved specifically to McLean from DC to take advantage of public high school. Smaller home, greater school system.