Affordable private school - other than religious schools

[Anonymous]

We're a non-religious family for whom religious indoctrination would be a deal breaker. We've been quite comfortable with Friends Community School's focus on values, rather than religion. Tuition is around $20,000, less for the lower school. Yes, it's technically a religious school. We asked a lot of questions prospectively during the open house/interview process to make sure that religion wouldn't be an issue (either for us or for the school). We've found it to be a great community, respectful and encouraging of differences, and strengthened by the shared values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

I'm a diehard atheist and we have been looking at private schools. I've visited a few Catholic as we can't do more than $15 comfortably (we could do more but it would be a huge stretch and not saving enough for college) and there is a huge range of how they handle religion but few have flexibility. One pushed the kids to go to pro-life activities and not an environment, regardless of religion I want my child in. They really need some more privates in our area.

Catholic schools are very different than Episcopal schools.

Depends on your perspective. I spoke with a few and I didn't see them as very different. All required religious education and attend church services. However, the Catholic was 1/2 the price.

None of the local Episcopalian schools have religion class that requires a child to answer theological questions. Most of them have chapel services in the morning and they do pray and sing praise songs in those. Catholic schools on the other hand have religion as a class and I presume that kids get grades for that as well. Episcopal schools tend to have much smaller class sizes than the Catholic schools that charge half the price. Most parochial schools have similar class size as the local public schools.

The Episcopalian that I spoke to have daily chapel and religion classes. Catholic had religion classes but weekly chapel. The ones Catholic I saw had reasonable class sizes. I'm not so worried about class size as curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

I'm a diehard atheist and we have been looking at private schools. I've visited a few Catholic as we can't do more than $15 comfortably (we could do more but it would be a huge stretch and not saving enough for college) and there is a huge range of how they handle religion but few have flexibility. One pushed the kids to go to pro-life activities and not an environment, regardless of religion I want my child in. They really need some more privates in our area.

Frankly, I think your kids could learn something at this Catholic school that they obviously aren't learning at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

They don’t. But I don’t believe Grace has religion class. They do have daily chapel and if they are anything like our school , it is very light in religious indoctrination. But they wouldn’t want you to skip it, For the simple reason of logistics even.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

They did not want to answer any questions about how they did things and how they handled non-Christian kids. Other schools were much more welcoming and supportive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you atheist?

What is this comment? You don't have to be atheist to prefer a non-religious school. We are Jewish and want a non-religious school because we aren't very dogmatic in our beliefs and find even Jewish schools to be stricter than we would prefer.

Anyway, I agree with those above about the K-8s. We are looking at a K-8 that is in the $25K range. We would consider $30K, but can't justify $35-40K at the K-8 level. Since we are looking for a non-religious school, that really limits our options.

I found Episcopalian schools rather light on religion. Maybe a bit more religious than the friends schools but not by much. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed that my 9 year old's knowledge of the bible after being in the school for years. I think may be once in a week they have a chapel service related to Christianity (if that), but most of the time they talk about character education. They do pray before meals but you can decline communion and certainly no classes on religion in any of the Episcopalian schools I know of. Actually, it is quite possible that it is more comfortable for a secular Jewish students to be in than the Jewish day schools in this area. A die hard atheist may not want their child to be exposed to any religion. I know of secular Jews and Muslims who are happy in Episcopalian schools.

Yes Episcopal schools are little different from secular private schools - including in their price tags. Episcopal schools tend to be some to the most expensive and prestigious out there.

There are a few smaller ones in MoCo that is much more affordable.

Define affordable. I consider $10-15K affordable. Others consider under $30K affortable.

Grace Episcopal and Christ Episcopal are both around 20k. Higher than 15K but way less than 30k.

I've spoken with Grace Episcopal. They are just as heavy on religion but twice as much as the Catholic school we looked at. They were not nice about the religion questions at all.

What do you mean, "not nice about the religion questions?" I take that to mean, "they wouldn't bend to exactly what I wanted to hear." And good for them. They don't need you.

They don’t. But I don’t believe Grace has religion class. They do have daily chapel and if they are anything like our school , it is very light in religious indoctrination. But they wouldn’t want you to skip it, For the simple reason of logistics even.

Daily chapel? When my kid went there chapel was weekly. Has that changed?

[Anonymous]

Christ Episcopal in Rockville has daily chapel led by a female reverend and emphasizes developing personal character over promoting biblical content (if that makes sense). The head of school and reverend are both liberal and progressive. We are a current family and my children have classmates that are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, and it hasn't been a problem for these families. Also, chapel is first thing in the morning, so technically, you may be able to arrive "late" and skip chapel, which is from 7:55-8:15. Tuition is around 19,000 per year. I recommend you at least check it out, or ask specifically to sit in on a chapel service and see what you think, because it seems like this may be a good fit for your family depending on your opinion on the chapel service.

[Anonymous]

OP, public schools are for you. No religious discussion, lots of character building emphasis, diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Christ Episcopal in Rockville has daily chapel led by a female reverend and emphasizes developing personal character over promoting biblical content (if that makes sense). The head of school and reverend are both liberal and progressive. We are a current family and my children have classmates that are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, and it hasn't been a problem for these families. Also, chapel is first thing in the morning, so technically, you may be able to arrive "late" and skip chapel, which is from 7:55-8:15. Tuition is around 19,000 per year. I recommend you at least check it out, or ask specifically to sit in on a chapel service and see what you think, because it seems like this may be a good fit for your family depending on your opinion on the chapel service.

It’s a pretty small school - your kids have Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu classmates? Interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the non-religious privates like the k-8are pricing themselves out of the market. Losing students to public schools because tuition is simply unsustainable. It’s now about $70k a year for two kids in lower school with the end nowhere in sight.

That's the frustrating part. Even $30-40K for one child. We'd love to go private and can do $15K comfortably for one child but there are not any schools that offer it. Some religious schools are more flexible than others but most aren't when it comes down to it.

They can’t do it with cost of real estate and salaries in this region. Only feasible for religious institutions that subsidize the operating cost to some degree.

Many k-8 schools have been at their locations for decades and thus shouldn’t have burdensome real estate costs. They can function on $30k yr per student. They had better because they will lose students if they go much higher. And then what? No funding for financial aid. No funding at all is more like it. They are already seeing people flee to cheaper options. Charging more won’t bring in more students.

PP- they aren't "losing students" by any stretch. There are loads of people who can pay. Just not you. You can thank the cost of living and the cost of health care for these prices.

Schools are service providers-- and ALL service providers costs have gone up while the cost of goods has come down over time. Pay a lawyer or a doctor recently? Same deal.

Yes, they are. Getting fewer applicants overall.Yes, still filling entry years but having a harder time filling spots from attrition. When Sidwell and GDS consolidate their campuses, it will put increased pressure on the k-8s. People already are turning to parochial schools (increase in demand across the board) or gunning for k-12s (for the security of a strong high school). K-8s keep increasing costs but in the process are pricing themselves out of competitiveness. Let's assume an average of $35k a year for two kids (and this is conservative because this doesn't assume any tuition increases over the years), that amounts to $560k to put two kids through. And that's with no guarantee of getting into a first choice school in 9th grade. So, yes, the k-8s do need to look at their models, especially when you consider that putting two kids through high school will cost at least another $320k at today's prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the non-religious privates like the k-8are pricing themselves out of the market. Losing students to public schools because tuition is simply unsustainable. It’s now about $70k a year for two kids in lower school with the end nowhere in sight.

That's the frustrating part. Even $30-40K for one child. We'd love to go private and can do $15K comfortably for one child but there are not any schools that offer it. Some religious schools are more flexible than others but most aren't when it comes down to it.

They can’t do it with cost of real estate and salaries in this region. Only feasible for religious institutions that subsidize the operating cost to some degree.

Many k-8 schools have been at their locations for decades and thus shouldn’t have burdensome real estate costs. They can function on $30k yr per student. They had better because they will lose students if they go much higher. And then what? No funding for financial aid. No funding at all is more like it. They are already seeing people flee to cheaper options. Charging more won’t bring in more students.

PP- they aren't "losing students" by any stretch. There are loads of people who can pay. Just not you. You can thank the cost of living and the cost of health care for these prices.

Schools are service providers-- and ALL service providers costs have gone up while the cost of goods has come down over time. Pay a lawyer or a doctor recently? Same deal.

Yes, they are. Getting fewer applicants overall.Yes, still filling entry years but having a harder time filling spots from attrition. When Sidwell and GDS consolidate their campuses, it will put increased pressure on the k-8s. People already are turning to parochial schools (increase in demand across the board) or gunning for k-12s (for the security of a strong high school). K-8s keep increasing costs but in the process are pricing themselves out of competitiveness. Let's assume an average of $35k a year for two kids (and this is conservative because this doesn't assume any tuition increases over the years), that amounts to $560k to put two kids through. And that's with no guarantee of getting into a first choice school in 9th grade. So, yes, the k-8s do need to look at their models, especially when you consider that putting two kids through high school will cost at least another $320k at today's prices.

Why do you think campus consolidation is such a big deal? Were split campuses really driving people to use K-8s instead?

[Anonymous]

gds lower school's location, start time and lack of lunch were a deterrent for us. Sidwell's lower school location was also a deterrent. Logistics would have been too complicated. Likely would have applied to both if they were located with their upper schools. I realize many are willing to make those sacrifices, but many aren't. Point is that the moves will increase the number of applicants to both. This is inevitably going to hurt k-8s. People will want k-12, cheaper privates or even publics. An increasingly expensive k-8 becomes a tough sell. In most cases, the facilities won't be able to compete with k-12. And in all cases, the k-12 (which may indeed be an inferior model) will remain desirable because of the guarantee of a top high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the non-religious privates like the k-8are pricing themselves out of the market. Losing students to public schools because tuition is simply unsustainable. It’s now about $70k a year for two kids in lower school with the end nowhere in sight.

That's the frustrating part. Even $30-40K for one child. We'd love to go private and can do $15K comfortably for one child but there are not any schools that offer it. Some religious schools are more flexible than others but most aren't when it comes down to it.

They can’t do it with cost of real estate and salaries in this region. Only feasible for religious institutions that subsidize the operating cost to some degree.

Many k-8 schools have been at their locations for decades and thus shouldn’t have burdensome real estate costs. They can function on $30k yr per student. They had better because they will lose students if they go much higher. And then what? No funding for financial aid. No funding at all is more like it. They are already seeing people flee to cheaper options. Charging more won’t bring in more students.

PP- they aren't "losing students" by any stretch. There are loads of people who can pay. Just not you. You can thank the cost of living and the cost of health care for these prices.

Schools are service providers-- and ALL service providers costs have gone up while the cost of goods has come down over time. Pay a lawyer or a doctor recently? Same deal.

Yes, they are. Getting fewer applicants overall.Yes, still filling entry years but having a harder time filling spots from attrition. When Sidwell and GDS consolidate their campuses, it will put increased pressure on the k-8s. People already are turning to parochial schools (increase in demand across the board) or gunning for k-12s (for the security of a strong high school). K-8s keep increasing costs but in the process are pricing themselves out of competitiveness. Let's assume an average of $35k a year for two kids (and this is conservative because this doesn't assume any tuition increases over the years), that amounts to $560k to put two kids through. And that's with no guarantee of getting into a first choice school in 9th grade. So, yes, the k-8s do need to look at their models, especially when you consider that putting two kids through high school will cost at least another $320k at today's prices.

Why do you think campus consolidation is such a big deal? Were split campuses really driving people to use K-8s instead?

Yes, I think so. Idea was that you could always circle back/enter later if you went to a decent k-8. The moves could also hurt Beauvoir, quite frankly. Lots of Georgetown families head there, but more might consider Sidwell if it becomes more convenient.