If you made $1MM annually, would you send your kids to private?

[Anonymous]

Depends on my monthly expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. And we make multiples of that. But public school is an important value to us.

Similar here. Our HHI will be > 5mm this year, and we send our kids to MoCo public schools. While we aren't leading the PTO, we are regular volunteers at the school (one spouse with part time work far more than the other). It's the right community for our family, and we wouldn't change it.

While we make a lot now, one of us grew up poor/lower middle class, the other middle-middle class. MoCo public schools suit us well. Yes, not everything is absolutely "perfect." In our view, that is sort of the point--we think our kids learn a bit more resilience when not everything is always perfect.

I will admit though that one high-earning spouse's income provides an advantage that helps make public schools work for us: The spouse who works part-time is *super* involved with kids' homework, enrichment, etc. We joke that our kids have 100% of MoCo public plus 50% home school on top.

We have a $2.5m HHI and also send our kids to public. DH and I both grew up in middle class families so we also valued sending our kids to public. Now that our kids are getting older, I’m wondering if we should switch our kids to private for a better educational experience.

I wonder if my poor background has clouded my judgment on what is best for our kids. I drive myself and DH crazy thinking about where to send our 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. And we make multiples of that. But public school is an important value to us.

Similar here. Our HHI will be > 5mm this year, and we send our kids to MoCo public schools. While we aren't leading the PTO, we are regular volunteers at the school (one spouse with part time work far more than the other). It's the right community for our family, and we wouldn't change it.

While we make a lot now, one of us grew up poor/lower middle class, the other middle-middle class. MoCo public schools suit us well. Yes, not everything is absolutely "perfect." In our view, that is sort of the point--we think our kids learn a bit more resilience when not everything is always perfect.

I will admit though that one high-earning spouse's income provides an advantage that helps make public schools work for us: The spouse who works part-time is *super* involved with kids' homework, enrichment, etc. We joke that our kids have 100% of MoCo public plus 50% home school on top.

I assume your children are in elementary school right? The home school / parent enrichment doesn’t work as well for middle and high school students. That’s when we sent ours to private!

It works well if you can afford tutors and outside activities. We supplemented in elementary a lot, some in middle school but with the advanced subjects it’s much harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't make that, so if that is the criteria for wanting the answer, then ignore what I'm saying. The reason I'm answering anyway is because we are very wealthy and retired young. We do not send our kids to private but could if we wanted to. I'm a former teacher and have a lot of friends who teach in both private and public as well as friends whose kids are in both private and public. We chose public based on all the information I know and have.

PP can you say more about this?

I'd love to hear some of the rationale. My kids go to a private K-8 but I'm leaning sending them to public HS.

[Anonymous]

From a financial standpoint, I don’t think the ROI is worth it financially. Your kids may gain some social capital. I’m not sure if it is worth 50k per year.

We are in a similar boat. I keep going back and forth on whether we should send our kids to private. The schools I like are inconvenient to get to so I wonder if the extra long commute plus cost is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. And we make multiples of that. But public school is an important value to us.

Similar here. Our HHI will be > 5mm this year, and we send our kids to MoCo public schools. While we aren't leading the PTO, we are regular volunteers at the school (one spouse with part time work far more than the other). It's the right community for our family, and we wouldn't change it.

While we make a lot now, one of us grew up poor/lower middle class, the other middle-middle class. MoCo public schools suit us well. Yes, not everything is absolutely "perfect." In our view, that is sort of the point--we think our kids learn a bit more resilience when not everything is always perfect.

I will admit though that one high-earning spouse's income provides an advantage that helps make public schools work for us: The spouse who works part-time is *super* involved with kids' homework, enrichment, etc. We joke that our kids have 100% of MoCo public plus 50% home school on top.

That is not a joke, that is pathetic. As you know at your supposed HHI, time is money. Why would you make your kids waste 3+ hours a day on home school instead of sending them somewhere better and using those 3 hours for play, family fun, sleep?

[Anonymous]

^ Also, you want your kids to learn resilience going to public school where they don’t coddle you… but then you have your spouse helicopter them. Kinda contradictory no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ Also, you want your kids to learn resilience going to public school where they don’t coddle you… but then you have your spouse helicopter them. Kinda contradictory no?

Not the pp. I’m the 2.5m pp. We supplement. It feels everyone supplements at our UMC public. This is pretty standard.

[Anonymous]

Nope, unless there is special needs, and going to a private high school will make a huge difference in growth/development!

[Anonymous]

We don’t make close to $1M and send our kids to private. It’s worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Also, you want your kids to learn resilience going to public school where they don’t coddle you… but then you have your spouse helicopter them. Kinda contradictory no?

Not the pp. I’m the 2.5m pp. We supplement. It feels everyone supplements at our UMC public. This is pretty standard.

Yes, because the curricula are uneven and have huge gaps. They have to teach their kids the things that were taught taught poorly or not at all in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. And we make multiples of that. But public school is an important value to us.

Similar here. Our HHI will be > 5mm this year, and we send our kids to MoCo public schools. While we aren't leading the PTO, we are regular volunteers at the school (one spouse with part time work far more than the other). It's the right community for our family, and we wouldn't change it.

While we make a lot now, one of us grew up poor/lower middle class, the other middle-middle class. MoCo public schools suit us well. Yes, not everything is absolutely "perfect." In our view, that is sort of the point--we think our kids learn a bit more resilience when not everything is always perfect.

I will admit though that one high-earning spouse's income provides an advantage that helps make public schools work for us: The spouse who works part-time is *super* involved with kids' homework, enrichment, etc. We joke that our kids have 100% of MoCo public plus 50% home school on top.

We have a $2.5m HHI and also send our kids to public. DH and I both grew up in middle class families so we also valued sending our kids to public. Now that our kids are getting older, I’m wondering if we should switch our kids to private for a better educational experience.

I wonder if my poor background has clouded my judgment on what is best for our kids. I drive myself and DH crazy thinking about where to send our 3 kids.

We made $3M in W school, send our kids to private.

DH and I both did public school all the way through, both well prepared for college. We bought our house based on the public schools.

We pulled our kids out of MCPS during COVID and haven’t looked back. There are significant curricular differences and very different relationships with teachers. Much better exposure to arts, history, music, science etc. Honestly feel like they are getting a more well-rounded education.

My kids love being in an environment where they know everyone and everyone knows them. It might get too stifling by high school, but kids are super happy for now.

It is a very different experience. I wouldn’t say that either way makes you “better” educated, but we think the private school our kids attend better aligns with our approach to education.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the kid. Some need a different environment. And not all privates are great or even better than your public options. It's not just public or private; it's this public and that private and this kid. My kid left private for public and it was a good decision, not one motivated by money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes absolutely. We only make $600k and our kids have attended both a top public and a top private school. The private school is just leaps and bounds better in so many ways. I had no idea what we were missing before. Yes it’s expensive but the cost is absolutely worth it to me.

Agree with this. For the parents who have never had a kid in a top private it’s hard to understand what you’re missing.

Besides, even if everything else was equal, the lack of troublemakers in our private is worth every penny.

[Anonymous]

Do you want your kids only associating with other kids whose families can pay $50k/year for private school? For some families, the answer is emphatically yes. For me its emphatically NO. Already the conspicuous consumption at our public school is ridiculous - private school would only magnify that.

This is highly personal though.