If quality of education is your only priority, are there any reasons to live in DC...

[Anonymous]

rather than Arlington or Bethesda? I ask because my child will enter kindergarten this year, I rent, and I am willing to move wherever is necessary.

[Anonymous]

Yep. The good DCPS schools are better, with smaller class sizes than the suburban schools. You just need to make sure it's a good school.

[Anonymous]

Our charter is superior to anything I've found in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

If you want a Montessori education and don't want to pay private, DC is a great bet. If we won the (money) lottery we'd stay in our same neighborhood to be near our Montessori charter. And for no other reason. We are hear for the school.

[Anonymous]

Flee DC if school is a priority

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our charter is superior to anything I've found in the suburbs.

For early elementary maybe but beyond that?

[Anonymous]

My dc was in 4th grade with 9 classmates at a charter. While part of me is horrified by the inefficiency of that, the other part of me really enjoyed the small class size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. The good DCPS schools are better, with smaller class sizes than the suburban schools. You just need to make sure it's a good school.

That is simply not true. My child has been in ES in both. The quality of instruction was excellent in both, and the class size exactly the same (24 K-4). I moved to close-in suburbia because of the difference in MS and HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our charter is superior to anything I've found in the suburbs.

Oh really, what have you "found" in the suburbs and what, precisely, are the differences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our charter is superior to anything I've found in the suburbs.

For early elementary maybe but beyond that?

So sacrifice elementary? Or live in DC for superior elementary and then if everyone stays the middle and high would be similar?

[Anonymous]

I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

[Anonymous]

I wasn't raised in a suburb, I don't like suburbs, I don't want to raise children in a suburb. My children are all smart, and will succeed no matter what--in fact, I would prefer them not to be in an environment chock full of kumon, travel sports, and AP classes for the sake of "rigor." Life is rigor. Living it should be interesting. Being ferried by school bus or suv from one subdivision to another, with the occasional meal at le pain quotidien or the cheesecake factory, sounds like hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our charter is superior to anything I've found in the suburbs.

For early elementary maybe but beyond that?

So sacrifice elementary? Or live in DC for superior elementary and then if everyone stays the middle and high would be similar?

Well you don't have a guarantee of getting into one of those fancy charters anyway. There is a reason so many people move for schools out of DC.

[Anonymous]

This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

I would say this is definitely true if you are the type of pedantic rule following type a personality that DC seems to attract. You'd think a town full of these types could accomplish so much, wouldn't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't raised in a suburb, I don't like suburbs, I don't want to raise children in a suburb. My children are all smart, and will succeed no matter what--in fact, I would prefer them not to be in an environment chock full of kumon, travel sports, and AP classes for the sake of "rigor." Life is rigor. Living it should be interesting. Being ferried by school bus or suv from one subdivision to another, with the occasional meal at le pain quotidien or the cheesecake factory, sounds like hell.

That's fine. You don't prioritize education in the same way OP does.