If you can afford it why wouldn’t you switch your kids to private with all the terrible things going on

[Anonymous]

Not all MCPS school suck. And community and peer group matter. I'm sure there are bright students and decent families at Sidwell and NCS and so on, but you are more likely to find them at the good public schools. And if you have a kid interested in STEM, I can't think of any reason why anyone would choose a private school over the good public high schools in the DC area.

But if you are zoned for a crappy public school, that's a different consideration.

[Anonymous]

We can afford private but our kids are very happy with public and doing well. Regardless, we 1000% believe in investing in our community and local public schools. We don’t jump ship and we recognize our privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had my kids in and out of private. MCPS made the best choice academically when it came to high school. Privates simply can’t offer as many options. One of my two younger kids even earned an associates before graduating. The other one took a greater variety of visual arts courses than privates offer and is now in art school on scholarship.

This is true. For the strongest and the weakest learners MCPS is the best. The strongest learners can go to magnets and have an unmatched peer group and well-taught college level classes. Most privates won't deal with major special needs, particularly for an older kid who comes in where the issues are known (except for the ones that focus on special needs).

I feel like most of the people I know who have their kids at private school have them there because: 1) they have the disposable income so that $50k doesn't hurt, 2) are religious and want their kids to be around their peers or 3) have kids who are struggling in the behemoth that is MCPS because they're not getting much attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the science curriculum is much stronger at their parochial school than an MCPS, which is a joke. Also, the language arts, writing and humanities are much stronger in the private schools. I will say that the kids at MCPS are further along in math, however, most of them do not have great foundational skills, and this comes and hurts them later on. I believe MCPS parents want to believe that their kids are getting a good education, but I can assure you, starting in middle school, that is rarely the case. I also think if you look at the college attrition list even the better public schools, W Schools, at MCPS have gone down recently in terms of the schools kids have been getting into and the number of kids that used to get into play top universities.

That’s not true, college attrition lists have gotten even better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve had my kids in and out of private. MCPS made the best choice academically when it came to high school. Privates simply can’t offer as many options. One of my two younger kids even earned an associates before graduating. The other one took a greater variety of visual arts courses than privates offer and is now in art school on scholarship.

This is true. For the strongest and the weakest learners MCPS is the best. The strongest learners can go to magnets and have an unmatched peer group and well-taught college level classes. Most privates won't deal with major special needs, particularly for an older kid who comes in where the issues are known (except for the ones that focus on special needs).

I feel like most of the people I know who have their kids at private school have them there because: 1) they have the disposable income so that $50k doesn't hurt, 2) are religious and want their kids to be around their peers or 3) have kids who are struggling in the behemoth that is MCPS because they're not getting much attention.

There are very few magnet spots and many seek out privates for SN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved from an elite private school to MoCo schools. Personally, my child wanted (and we supported) a less 100% privileged environment. We appreciated the coddling when they were little, but have no interest in our kids going into their adulthood literally never having been friends with someone who needed free lunches or came from a non college educated family. No judgement to those who do private the whole way - great people and families. We just wanted different exposure a little younger than they did. These are people’s formative years and I wanted them broader experiences for my kids. We have never regretted the choice.

Are your kids actually friends with their classmates from different socio-economic backgrounds? Do they go their homes, see their lives up close? Kids often self-segregate by class background and it starts extremely young.

Yep - she is!

[Anonymous]

I can't stand smug spendy private school parents and the kids they misparent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't stand smug spendy private school parents and the kids they misparent.

If you haven’t noticed- there are plenty of public smug parents too!!

This thread is bringing out some winners for sure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are non-White, non-Christian, STEM-focussed expats. The private school is not bringing us any cache nor we are trying to pass. So, we are in search of a like-ability cohort and an education focussed parent group.

The terrible things don't happen to us. A thug will only beat up a thug. No one messes with the nerdy kid who is in a cohort of nerdy kids.

Public schools have more people who look like me. I do not want to be the token diversity of a private school.

I don’t care for this response. Thugs only beat up other thugs. - so does that mean then my child is thug because a kid pushed him into a basketball pole while at recess - and he ended up in the hospital?

What an awful idiotic response. Please refrain from posting ever again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can afford private but our kids are very happy with public and doing well. Regardless, we 1000% believe in investing in our community and local public schools. We don’t jump ship and we recognize our privilege.

+1 and will add that we want to minimize focus on wealth and status as much as possible. I want my kids to work hard, be good people, think for themselves, respect everyone regardless of station, give back, etc. When I am around private school parents and their children, it’s obvious that many of them don’t share the same priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we're in a position to make up for MCPS's deficiencies. MCPS fails all students, but those failures don't fall evenly. If you're an educated, UMC family you can fill in the gaps. Maybe you luck into the advanced options that still exist, and if you don't you supplement that at home. If you've got a gifted kid but you're not in a position to supplement or if you have a special needs kid that MCPS is really fighting giving services, you're probably out of luck, but that's not us.

That’s the ticket. If you ask nothing of MCPS except what they are currently offering then yes you probably feel it is excellent. For anyone that has a neurodivergent or special-needs child public education in Montgomery County is hell.

I have a 2e child with special needs and an IEP and MCPS has been excellent for us with services, accomodation, and acceleration/enrichment. So YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we're in a position to make up for MCPS's deficiencies. MCPS fails all students, but those failures don't fall evenly. If you're an educated, UMC family you can fill in the gaps. Maybe you luck into the advanced options that still exist, and if you don't you supplement that at home. If you've got a gifted kid but you're not in a position to supplement or if you have a special needs kid that MCPS is really fighting giving services, you're probably out of luck, but that's not us.

That’s the ticket. If you ask nothing of MCPS except what they are currently offering then yes you probably feel it is excellent. For anyone that has a neurodivergent or special-needs child public education in Montgomery County is hell.

I have a 2e child with special needs and an IEP and MCPS has been excellent for us with services, accomodation, and acceleration/enrichment. So YMMV.

Do you want a cookie? Not many have your experience. Empathy goes a long way - but then again - you got yours! So who cares about all the other special needs children who are NOT being served.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the science curriculum is much stronger at their parochial school than an MCPS, which is a joke. Also, the language arts, writing and humanities are much stronger in the private schools. I will say that the kids at MCPS are further along in math, however, most of them do not have great foundational skills, and this comes and hurts them later on. I believe MCPS parents want to believe that their kids are getting a good education, but I can assure you, starting in middle school, that is rarely the case. I also think if you look at the college attrition list even the better public schools, W Schools, at MCPS have gone down recently in terms of the schools kids have been getting into and the number of kids that used to get into play top universities.

I think more private school parents want to believe that the majority of kids in public are suffering when this is not true holistically. The gaps that students are displaying that are seen at the university level are seen from both public and private students. Really depends on the school they are coming from. However public students still seen more ready to adapt to circumstances as they have been training to do so.

I’d also add that attrition rates to colleges and universities nowadays has more to do with cost and overall competition. Public school students are competing against a greater pool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:There’s no perfect school and some of the problems discussed here are overblown or not applicable

+1

Fearmongering is out of control

A school shooting is my greatest fear right now for my kids.

School shootings occur in private schools too. You'll have to move out of America if you want to reduce that fear.

Out of 134 school shootings from 2000 to 2018, 8 occurred in private schools, while 122 occurred in public schools. https://www.cato.org/blog/are-shootings-more-likely-occur-public-schools

And how many more public schools are there than private schools? Come on, you can do better trolling than this.

If you were less lazy and had actually read the very short article I posted, you would see that it directly answered your weak point:

"Since there are many more public schools than private schools, we must consider that difference. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that around 25 percent of U.S. K‑12 schools are private, while about 10 percent of schooled children attend private schools. In other words, the data suggest that children that go to private schools are disproportionately less likely to experience a school shooting than children in public schools. Of course, considering the difference in the number of students across the two sectors does not account for differences in the types of students. After all, at least some of the divergence in school shootings found are likely due to other factors such as household income and parent education levels. However, a recent study by Danish Shakeel and me, presented at the International School Choice and Reform Conference, finds that private schools experience better school culture than public schools even after controlling for several characteristics such as school size, location, racial composition of students and teachers, and the percent of students from low-income families. We find that private schools are significantly less likely than public schools to experience problems such as student fighting, bullying, and, perhaps most importantly, weapon possession. Anytime you write about a tragedy and point to your favorite policy reform as the solution, it can seem opportunistic and, frankly, a little callous. But it is not groundless to think that school type could matter, and nothing should be off-limits for discussion to end these sorts of tragedies."

Except nothing controls for the most important factors, pre-selecting the student body/community and impact from a school shooting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would argue that the science curriculum is much stronger at their parochial school than an MCPS, which is a joke. Also, the language arts, writing and humanities are much stronger in the private schools. I will say that the kids at MCPS are further along in math, however, most of them do not have great foundational skills, and this comes and hurts them later on. I believe MCPS parents want to believe that their kids are getting a good education, but I can assure you, starting in middle school, that is rarely the case. I also think if you look at the college attrition list even the better public schools, W Schools, at MCPS have gone down recently in terms of the schools kids have been getting into and the number of kids that used to get into play top universities.

I think more private school parents want to believe that the majority of kids in public are suffering when this is not true holistically. The gaps that students are displaying that are seen at the university level are seen from both public and private students. Really depends on the school they are coming from. However public students still seen more ready to adapt to circumstances as they have been training to do so.

I’d also add that attrition rates to colleges and universities nowadays has more to do with cost and overall competition. Public school students are competing against a greater pool.

+1 My MCPS kid is doing more advanced math than our friend's kid who is at a 55K/year DMV private school. You can say that my kid isn't taught properly and that the private school teachers were better, but his MCPS teachers have been excellent (even though class sizes were big).