Choosing public when you can afford private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We could afford private but chose to send our kids to public because we believe in public education and the whole system collapses if more affluent parents who can donate their time and money to the PTSA, advocate for improvements, hod leaders accountable, etc. opt for private. Public education is a public good, but it only works as it should if we all invest in it (and I don't just mean by paying taxes).

*hold

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could afford private but chose to send our kids to public because we believe in public education and the whole system collapses if more affluent parents who can donate their time and money to the PTSA, advocate for improvements, hod leaders accountable, etc. opt for private. Public education is a public good, but it only works as it should if we all invest in it (and I don't just mean by paying taxes).

*hold

+1

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately because of MAGA morons public will be destroyed in the near future. By 2028.

Only the 1% will get educated.

I just set up funds for our nieces and nephews to go to privates that are not religious.

Cost will be over $100,000 per kid by the time Repukes are done with their plans to disolve education and the US.

And for God's sake do not have any more children.

[Anonymous]

We can afford it. I attend both including a well know. One talked about on DCUM. The secret you learn is that life is that there is positive and negatives in both sides of the fence.

So evaluate what your kids need and your family wants and why and then make a choice.

[Anonymous]

Different school district, but we chose to start the kids in public...though they have now moved to private.

For us there were two main considerations. Their home school was much closer to our house than the privates we liked best. So logistics, time in car, etc were easier. The public also offered a dual language immersion program that isn't available at any private we would consider.

I think we made the right decision to start in public, and I think we made the right decision to move to private at the time we did.

[Anonymous]

Public (at least MCPS) hands down offers better education than any private in the area.
So many more opportunities and resources in public.
I think people choose private when their kid needs a lot more hand holding or one on one help and the parent doesn’t want to or can’t provide this.
The other reason some choose pricy private is if the family wants to hobnob with other private school families. They aren’t wealthier than public school families but they want to network with each other maybe for business reasons.
Some private may be feeders for certain colleges
But if it’s quality education and opportunities you want, public is the best choice.

[Anonymous]

We could have afforded private for our 2 kids but it seemed silly when we lived in the Burning Tree-Pyle-Whitman cluster. Kids are doing great in college now and we saved a ton of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately because of MAGA morons public will be destroyed in the near future. By 2028.

Only the 1% will get educated.

I just set up funds for our nieces and nephews to go to privates that are not religious.

Cost will be over $100,000 per kid by the time Repukes are done with their plans to disolve education and the US.

And for God's sake do not have any more children.

Love- have you seen the test scores up till now? Why the sudden outrage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We could afford private but chose to send our kids to public because we believe in public education and the whole system collapses if more affluent parents who can donate their time and money to the PTSA, advocate for improvements, hod leaders accountable, etc. opt for private. Public education is a public good, but it only works as it should if we all invest in it (and I don't just mean by paying taxes).

How noble of you to sacrifice your children’s education for your political activism!

[Anonymous]

We are in the Whitman cluster and could afford private for two kids. We have considered private at various points, but we have one kid who is very independent, has no trouble self advocating and benefited from certain programs offered at Whitman that privates simply did not have. We’ve also found that this child benefited from the wide range of courses offered at Whitman and is taking classes that would not have been possible at the privates we looked at. Our youngest is not in high school yet so we will evaluate when needed, but we think the public has benefits that privates don’t have. There are lots of different types of kids so many more options to find true peers. We do love the local community and how close everyone is. And we think our kids are benefitting from an experience where they have to figure out how to navigate different situations and interact with classmates from different backgrounds. If our younger child seems lost or needs smaller class sizes or more support, we would consider switching to private. Class size is my main concern in public.

[Anonymous]

We do public and supplement through tutors/enrichment classes as needed. We could afford private but decided that living in Bethesda and enriching outside as needed was a better choice. There is a real benefit to us in being a party of neighbood schools.

[Anonymous]

We did. A few reasons:

We have a really, really good public elementary. Small, as good as any of the privates we would have considered. Almost everyone in the neighborhood goes public for elementary - literally no reason to waste money. My sister's kids are at a local, well-regarded private. They love it, great environment, but no "better" than our schools. Not more academically rigorous or anything. And my sister is a teacher who agrees, insofar as my kids' experiences at our schools. Obviously, not all publics (or privates) are the same.

We had planned to reevaluate after elementary, and I guess we did sort of, but it came down to we were happy, kids are flourishing, our middle and high schools are also too-rated, so again -- didn't make sense to pay when we're delighted with what we're getting for free. And we've loved our middle school.

Oldest is in 8th grade. We're going to start at public high at least, see if we continue to be happy. Will pivot if we need to, but so far, we just haven't felt any reason to do so.

Honestly, a lot depends on your public schools and the kid(s) you have. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately because of MAGA morons public will be destroyed in the near future. By 2028.

Only the 1% will get educated.

I just set up funds for our nieces and nephews to go to privates that are not religious.

Cost will be over $100,000 per kid by the time Repukes are done with their plans to disolve education and the US.

And for God's sake do not have any more children.

College costs have nothing to do with MAGA, its supply and demand and no accountability in spending.

[Anonymous]

We put the money we would have put towards a private education into investments. 8 years later we are alot less stressed about how they will do after college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We could afford private but chose to send our kids to public because we believe in public education and the whole system collapses if more affluent parents who can donate their time and money to the PTSA, advocate for improvements, hod leaders accountable, etc. opt for private. Public education is a public good, but it only works as it should if we all invest in it (and I don't just mean by paying taxes).

*hold

You do understand that this is all via wealthy schools which will be just fine without yoru money and will not collapse.