Private school is a terrible ROI for middle class people

[Anonymous]

Well this thread derailed since I last checked. Time to throw in the towel!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The idea that the value of an education can be measured solely in financial terms is completely cloddish.

Not quite.

I believe a majority of people in the middle class do not know how to invest and how to think long-term about money. So perhaps for them, even if their kids stayed in public, they would fritter away their extra dollars on useless things and not actually take the opportunity to build wealth. In those circumstances, why not pay for private instead, since investment is going to go to waste anyway?

But for those who do understand compounding and strategic money placements... public is a good idea. Usually those are also the people who make sure their kids learn something in public. They make the most of what they've got.

We are well above middle class, but not a 7 figure HHI. Kids are in public. We’ve worked very hard to set it up so that they don’t have to live the same “successful” lives we have had to. I hope they will choose to do something meaningful and not income-based, since they won’t need much money.

Your point?
We chose the meaningful careers that don't pay much and still ended up with 25M because of lucky (or intelligent) stock market investing.
You can have both.
Most people believe the myth that salaries build wealth. That is not true.

My point is not pissing away 50k per year, per kid on K-12 education when I can grow that money exponentially, rather than try to create another MBB automaton or PE vulture. Let’s be real. That’s the primary reason many DCUM posters choose private schools, unless they are particularly religious. I don’t buy their fanatical claims about classical education or nurturing environments.

You are doing a lot of imagining about what other people are thinking.

[Anonymous]

No one believes the poster with careers that “don’t pay much” but has $25M due to stocks alone.

And either way, none of you are answering the question because none of you are middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one believes the poster with careers that “don’t pay much” but has $25M due to stocks alone.

And either way, none of you are answering the question because none of you are middle class.

Bingo.

Lots of people here who can afford private school, chose not to, and are simply justifying their choice by trashing private school families. That's the bottom line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one believes the poster with careers that “don’t pay much” but has $25M due to stocks alone.

And either way, none of you are answering the question because none of you are middle class.

Bingo.

Lots of people here who can afford private school, chose not to, and are simply justifying their choice by trashing private school families. That's the bottom line.

The private school families are doing plenty of their own trashing, telling people they are bad parents if they don’t send their kids to private school.

[Anonymous]

By OP's theory, no one should ever buy anything but the most basic essentials because of the lack of ROI. Imagine all the money you would rack up for your children by not buying a bigger house, not buying new cars, never eating at restaurants, never taking vacation, etc. Or how much money could be saved never buying your children gifts, toys, new clothes, experiences, extracurriculars!!

For the most part, middle class families don't see private education through the eyes of being around "the right crowd." They could care less about anyone's club membership or what board they serve on.

Middle class families are more likely to have friends who work in the area private and public schools that tell them honestly about the differences. They tend to value the ways their children are spending the precious fleeting hours of their childhood and would prefer they make music, create art, and play outside with everyday P.E. than take endless standardized tests on Chromebooks and watch videos of books being read aloud rather than actual books.

To the poster who thinks that being in a classroom with a desk thrower builds character, I admire your commitment -- but I prefer the alternative.

[Anonymous]

Move to China. People love saving money there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By OP's theory, no one should ever buy anything but the most basic essentials because of the lack of ROI. Imagine all the money you would rack up for your children by not buying a bigger house, not buying new cars, never eating at restaurants, never taking vacation, etc. Or how much money could be saved never buying your children gifts, toys, new clothes, experiences, extracurriculars!!

For the most part, middle class families don't see private education through the eyes of being around "the right crowd." They could care less about anyone's club membership or what board they serve on.

Middle class families are more likely to have friends who work in the area private and public schools that tell them honestly about the differences. They tend to value the ways their children are spending the precious fleeting hours of their childhood and would prefer they make music, create art, and play outside with everyday P.E. than take endless standardized tests on Chromebooks and watch videos of books being read aloud rather than actual books.

To the poster who thinks that being in a classroom with a desk thrower builds character, I admire your commitment -- but I prefer the alternative.

I know what you are trying to say but you gave bad examples.

A larger house may in fact have a good ROI vs staying in a small house.

Buying a new car may also have a good ROI if the alternative is taking Ubers every day or driving an old car that has significant maintenance needs.

Also, I am confused by the profile you are crafting for this middle class family. A middle class family that has friends that work in private or public schools is very likely to also receive significant if not 100% FA at the private schools.

In this instance the ROI is quite easy…it’s free and therefore an easy decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By OP's theory, no one should ever buy anything but the most basic essentials because of the lack of ROI. Imagine all the money you would rack up for your children by not buying a bigger house, not buying new cars, never eating at restaurants, never taking vacation, etc. Or how much money could be saved never buying your children gifts, toys, new clothes, experiences, extracurriculars!!

For the most part, middle class families don't see private education through the eyes of being around "the right crowd." They could care less about anyone's club membership or what board they serve on.

Middle class families are more likely to have friends who work in the area private and public schools that tell them honestly about the differences. They tend to value the ways their children are spending the precious fleeting hours of their childhood and would prefer they make music, create art, and play outside with everyday P.E. than take endless standardized tests on Chromebooks and watch videos of books being read aloud rather than actual books.

To the poster who thinks that being in a classroom with a desk thrower builds character, I admire your commitment -- but I prefer the alternative.

I know what you are trying to say but you gave bad examples.

A larger house may in fact have a good ROI vs staying in a small house.

Buying a new car may also have a good ROI if the alternative is taking Ubers every day or driving an old car that has significant maintenance needs.

Also, I am confused by the profile you are crafting for this middle class family. A middle class family that has friends that work in private or public schools is very likely to also receive significant if not 100% FA at the private schools.

In this instance the ROI is quite easy…it’s free and therefore an easy decision.

No middle class family is paying full freight at these schools. Trust me.

[Anonymous]

We paid full freight as a middle class family. But over time our income increased a lot.

I did it because you only get one chance at a good education as a child/teen. There are many many times you can build wealth. We would have more money if we didn’t send them but they had an exceptional time at their schools and were able to get into the colleges they wanted to. Would that have happened if we just went public? Maybe but then the experience to get there I can guarantee would not have been as great.

We now have a lot of money regardless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We paid full freight as a middle class family. But over time our income increased a lot.

I did it because you only get one chance at a good education as a child/teen. There are many many times you can build wealth. We would have more money if we didn’t send them but they had an exceptional time at their schools and were able to get into the colleges they wanted to. Would that have happened if we just went public? Maybe but then the experience to get there I can guarantee would not have been as great.

We now have a lot of money regardless

You aren't in any way middle class.

[Anonymous]

We are DCUM middle class and send our kids to private. It's expensive, but we can indeed afford it. We will still have a comfortable retirement and enough college savings for kids to have some choices about where they want to go.

But having kids excited to go to school, every day, seems priceless?

In terms of ROI, it's probably not the best decision and we know that. But is my goal to end up in the grave with the most money possible? Is that really my goal?

[Anonymous]

We are actually middle class ($140k HHI), not DCUM middle class. We only have one kid though. We do not feel we can afford private for K-5 at all. We have discussed potentially trying to do private, ideally with financial aid, for HS, or maybe for MS and then back to public for HS. It would be a major sacrifice.

I don't think of it in terms of "ROI" though. The goal wouldn't be to ensure our kid makes more money. We just want positive educational environments, and while we're reasonably happy with our public elementary school, MS and HS sound really hard. We are also looking into charters and moving. Our kid appears to be very academic, but is also somewhat shy and sensitive. We'll look for the best fit. If that happens to be a private school, we'll try to figure something out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are actually middle class ($140k HHI), not DCUM middle class. We only have one kid though. We do not feel we can afford private for K-5 at all. We have discussed potentially trying to do private, ideally with financial aid, for HS, or maybe for MS and then back to public for HS. It would be a major sacrifice.

I don't think of it in terms of "ROI" though. The goal wouldn't be to ensure our kid makes more money. We just want positive educational environments, and while we're reasonably happy with our public elementary school, MS and HS sound really hard. We are also looking into charters and moving. Our kid appears to be very academic, but is also somewhat shy and sensitive. We'll look for the best fit. If that happens to be a private school, we'll try to figure something out.

If you are accepted to Sidwell or GDS it will likely be free for you…or nearly free.

It seems the largest misconception is that private schools are not generous with aid, when in fact they are more generous than most colleges.

There I guess is also a shame element that people don’t seem to care about for college…probably because you aren’t interacting with parents when your kid goes to college.

[Anonymous]

I still can’t get past this assumption that all public schools are bad and all private schools are good. No room for nuance? I would never send my kids to a bad public school they hated to go to. There is another choice. A good public school they like. It’s not a binary choice.