Private School for Middle Class income (middle class in DC terms)?
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Anonymous
| The cost of attending a top private school (tuition & fees & after school enrichmen plus child care) is almost $40K per year for pre-K. If the average HHI income is $80K per year; how is it possible for an average family to afford such a privte school? |
Anonymous
Why woukd you think private schools are for the average family? |
Anonymous
NP here, and sadly, I agree. Private schools have never been for the average family. The travesty in our education system is not that middle class people can't afford private schools, it's that public schools are atrocious. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try to find a way to afford a high-quality education for my child, but I do realize that what I'm entitled to and not getting is a decent public option. |
Anonymous
You forgot to include other things like the annual fund, auction and misc. school fundraisers... |
Anonymous
MANY, MANY public schools are not atrocious--let's not be alarmist here. Remember: if you look at the top universities, the majority of the students come from public schools. If you are unhappy with DCPS (which has many fine elementaries btw) and can't afford private, then stop complaining and move to a district that you like and that you can afford to live in. |
Anonymous
< Most Can't |
Anonymous
Sorry, but I don't buy this. Yes, there are some people who are underwater on their mortgages and this would apply to them. But there are many more people who don't want to move because they don't like the options of what they can afford. They may not be able to afford N. Arlington or Bethesda/Chevy Chase, but they could probably manage an apartment in Silver Spring, parts of Arlington or Fairfax County if good public schools were enough of a priority. But many people would rather live close in in a crappy school district than in a far-out suburb. That's fine, it's certainly a valid choice, but don't complain about not being able to afford private school. |
Anonymous
| It is unbelievable to me that a family with a HHI of $200k wonders (more like wishing for) if they will qualify for any FA. Whatever the average income in DC may be, that should still be considered a high income. Our HHI is $65k and our DC got accepted to a few top private schools in DC, but we ended up staying at public. Our FA award was 50%. It's not like the school had a small pool of FA fund; I'm sure they could have offered more to us, but they also have policies to follow. So if we decided to send our DC to private with that tuition, that leaves us with about $40k to live on. That's do-able. But we also had to think about other costs associated with the private school - fundraisers, auction, misc. fees of whatnot..... Considering all of that, we gave up on private very, very reluctantly. When I posted this on other thread, I was bashed by other posters saying that why did we even bother applying to private with this kind of income when we know we can't afford the private school; it's not where we belong, go to public, etc. Gosh, if we made a HHI of $200k, we wouldn't even think of applying to FA. I wonder what kind of fabulous living these people have. |
Anonymous
Another travesity is some people abusing "minority" status. A woman I know open says she loves that her kids have a Spanish last name because "that Cuban grandmother sure comes in handy checking off the 'Hispanic' box." Suddenly those kids of 2 lawyers- none of whom could recognized Spanish if they heard it -have preference everywhere. Colleges recruiters have told her daughter to use it to her full advantage. That makes me so sad for the daughter of someone else I know who is also a good student but legitimately pulled herself up learning English as a second language and parents with far less income and no highrer ed themselves. Sometimes those distinctions just aren't evident on paper - they are just 2 Hispanic girls. Boo. |
Anonymous
| bump bump, which ones are the "big three"? I am so clueless! Not that I can afford it. (HHI only $200k). |
Anonymous
There is a sticky at the top of this forum. |