Is private school worth it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you do a search, you'll probably find 20+ threads on this same topic. Everyone is biased to justify their choice. Is private school better? Yes, definitely. Having gone to a "top" public school and a "top" private school myself, and having also sent my kids to a "top" public and private, I can say without hesitation that private school is hands down better in almost every way. Is it worth it? That depends on how important it is to you and what type of sacrifices you have to make to be able to afford it. For our family, the financial stress was just too much so we moved to public. It's not as good, we're not as happy with the school, but we're saving tons of money and have less financial stress. It's working for now, but I could see us switching back to private in a few years.

Not definitely better, of course. These things can only be accurately discussed in the context of a specific child, a specific private and a specific public, and I think it's futile trying to generalize beyond that. Private school parents are often quite desperate to believe private is universally better because of the financial burden involved, but it's not possible to generalize.

I'm a K-12 private grad from a top private (not in DC) and I'm sending my kids to public. I genuinely believe that the public options available to us are better than the private options and I feel fortunate for that. Not everybody has reasonable public options. Not all kids do well in public or private. I've known kids who moved from private to public and flourished, and vice versa. If I lived somewhere else other than where I live, I might not have good public options, and I'd probably send my kids to private. These are enormously individual circumstances and a million messages on DCUM saying otherwise doesn't change that reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my experience (I've send kids to both public and private), the quality of education is much better at private.

The teachers are more qualified and have more freedom. The head of school is more invested in making teachers happy. The kids are expected to behave more civilized and less like wild barbarians. Kindness, compassion, respect was taught at my kids private but never at our public so the kids were unruly and bratty.

From chapel in the morning to head of school walking around, you get the feeling that the instructors care about your child. At public school they were a number and they felt it.

This statement is absolutely not true! I only attended private myself, and now I'm a teacher who has only taught at private, so I have a good idea what I am talking about here (but I understand that private school parents all adamantly disagree).

Private schools pay their teachers far, far less than public, and this, combined with the fact that privates can/do employ non-certified teachers, is the reason that privates hire significantly higher proportions of young, inexperienced teachers. Yes, the work environment is nice if you have a spouse who can pay the bills, but there are also many private school teachers who work there because they simply aren't employable at public. The invested, enthusiastic parents of private school kids does tend to close the gap a bit, and make up for the teachers' lack of experience or subject matter knowledge, but not entirely. In private, you are paying for social connections, prestige, and stately buildings....NOT superior teachers.

I teach private because I like the atmosphere, involved parents, and lack of behavior issues, but I am 100% certain that the education offered is not superior to public. It is possible that the social connections do compensate, and that there are other factors that smooth a child's path to success more easily than superior teaching staff/education, and this is what parents don't want to admit.



Interesting response. What kind of social connections are being forged? Is it between the rich kids or do they benefit the other folks too?

[Anonymous]

I disagree somewhat with the teacher here. Our kids attend one of only a few IB private schools in the country that is fully accredited K-12. If I could get the education at a public school we would happily save the money. We are on FA and feel the bills. Not there for connections. The public IB schools are all water downed in excellence and mostly established for more funding in lower income areas. We love the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree somewhat with the teacher here. Our kids attend one of only a few IB private schools in the country that is fully accredited K-12. If I could get the education at a public school we would happily save the money. We are on FA and feel the bills. Not there for connections. The public IB schools are all water downed in excellence and mostly established for more funding in lower income areas. We love the curriculum.

Sorry you are dead wrong. I'm an IB grad from one of those lower income schools in a different state with overall a poorer system and I got an excellent education. Sounds like you haven't researched enough. I also passed my IB exam and got a full year of college credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree somewhat with the teacher here. Our kids attend one of only a few IB private schools in the country that is fully accredited K-12. If I could get the education at a public school we would happily save the money. We are on FA and feel the bills. Not there for connections. The public IB schools are all water downed in excellence and mostly established for more funding in lower income areas. We love the curriculum.

Sorry you are dead wrong. I'm an IB grad from one of those lower income schools in a different state with overall a poorer system and I got an excellent education. Sounds like you haven't researched enough. I also passed my IB exam and got a full year of college credit.

I have kids in primary school in a language track that is not widely offered. Believe me I researched.

[Anonymous]

It is worth it to me for my child. He did fine in public ES but our local MS, while highly regarded, is HUGE. 3 grades with appr. 1100-1200 students. My son would be lost there. I'd rather spend the money and get some FA to send him to a smaller private school where the teachers know him and won't let him coast along. My neighbor teaches in another large public MS and she has something like 130 students each day. She said with classes so large and so many kids with IEPs and 504s that it is hard to get to know the students. She knows the students by where they sit in class and which period she has them. I think it's worth $8,000 per year for my son to go to private school where his teacher knows him, not where he sits and which period he is in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is worth it to me for my child. He did fine in public ES but our local MS, while highly regarded, is HUGE. 3 grades with appr. 1100-1200 students. My son would be lost there. I'd rather spend the money and get some FA to send him to a smaller private school where the teachers know him and won't let him coast along. My neighbor teaches in another large public MS and she has something like 130 students each day. She said with classes so large and so many kids with IEPs and 504s that it is hard to get to know the students. She knows the students by where they sit in class and which period she has them. I think it's worth $8,000 per year for my son to go to private school where his teacher knows him, not where he sits and which period he is in.

If it were only $8K, then sure.

[Anonymous]

When I was a 24 year old teacher in a private school, I was super enthusiastic. However, I had student loans and the low salary (32k) meant that I was also babysitting and teaching weekends at a language school to make ends meet. My friends who taught in public had double or more my salary and were able to devote all of their spare time to school work.

Just something to think about.

[Anonymous]

You can only answer this question if you have a very clear idea of what your goals are. If you have vague notions of the "best education" or "great connections" you are not going to get a valuable answer as to whether a school is "worth it". There are tons of public school success stories and tins of private school flops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can only answer this question if you have a very clear idea of what your goals are. If you have vague notions of the "best education" or "great connections" you are not going to get a valuable answer as to whether a school is "worth it". There are tons of public school success stories and tins of private school flops.

This is why it's nice to hear from people who have been through the private system and what they choose to do with their kids.

[Anonymous]

We sent our kids to private for many years. I wish I had that money back for college and retirement. They also went to public which was fine. If it's a financial struggle I don't think it's worth the money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is worth it to me for my child. He did fine in public ES but our local MS, while highly regarded, is HUGE. 3 grades with appr. 1100-1200 students. My son would be lost there. I'd rather spend the money and get some FA to send him to a smaller private school where the teachers know him and won't let him coast along. My neighbor teaches in another large public MS and she has something like 130 students each day. She said with classes so large and so many kids with IEPs and 504s that it is hard to get to know the students. She knows the students by where they sit in class and which period she has them. I think it's worth $8,000 per year for my son to go to private school where his teacher knows him, not where he sits and which period he is in.

If it were only $8K, then sure.

But $8,000 to me is a good chunk of change. I'm a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is worth it to me for my child. He did fine in public ES but our local MS, while highly regarded, is HUGE. 3 grades with appr. 1100-1200 students. My son would be lost there. I'd rather spend the money and get some FA to send him to a smaller private school where the teachers know him and won't let him coast along. My neighbor teaches in another large public MS and she has something like 130 students each day. She said with classes so large and so many kids with IEPs and 504s that it is hard to get to know the students. She knows the students by where they sit in class and which period she has them. I think it's worth $8,000 per year for my son to go to private school where his teacher knows him, not where he sits and which period he is in.

If it were only $8K, then sure.

But $8,000 to me is a good chunk of change. I'm a teacher.

Where is tuition only 8K?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can only answer this question if you have a very clear idea of what your goals are. If you have vague notions of the "best education" or "great connections" you are not going to get a valuable answer as to whether a school is "worth it". There are tons of public school success stories and tins of private school flops.

This is why it's nice to hear from people who have been through the private system and what they choose to do with their kids.

That tells you about their goals and whether it was worth it for them.

This tells you nothing about whether it might be worth it for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can only answer this question if you have a very clear idea of what your goals are. If you have vague notions of the "best education" or "great connections" you are not going to get a valuable answer as to whether a school is "worth it". There are tons of public school success stories and tins of private school flops.

This is why it's nice to hear from people who have been through the private system and what they choose to do with their kids.

That tells you about their goals and whether it was worth it for them.

This tells you nothing about whether it might be worth it for you.

It tells you a lot about if it might be worth it for you if you share the same goals.