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[quote=Anonymous]My two children are 5 years apart, attended Bethesda Elementary School, and the oldest had the most crowded classrooms. I well remember his disastrous first grade with 31 kids! The youngest attended after the addition and had to deal with more students total, but had smaller class sizes.

I think it's luck of the draw, OP. Now my kids are in their freshman year of college and middle school. I know there's crime and violence at BCC and the usual middle school shenanigans. It's always been that way, but there are spikes of trouble every now and then, at various schools, so if your kid is unlucky and gets a bad year, it's easy to worry that schools are going downhill.

You might consider the following to aid in your decision:

1. Privates may enforce more discipline, and weed out kids with problematic behaviors, so classrooms are quieter and possibly smaller.

2. MCPS has the CES, magnets, and advanced tracks in middle and high school, therefore more ability to accelerate precocious students, that only the very top privates can match.

3. If your child needs an IEP/504, services and accommodations, privates are not required to offer anything, but publics are, and they do. Sometimes very well indeed (one of my kids had an IEP).

4. Money. It deserves its own discussion. What does "if money is not an issue" really mean? A private school parent will always assess their child's experience relative to how much they're spending. A refrain you'll hear a lot is: I'm happy, but not 30-60K happier than I was before! Invested in the stock market, that money would have provided much reassurance for college tuition, or your kids' downpayment on a home, or your retirement, or eldercare costs... is private a better choice than other priorities in your life? Nowadays colleges are very selective, and college costs have on average risen faster than inflation. State universities cost 30-40K a year total, but only if your kid gets in. Kids need very good grades now to get to UVA and UMD. Private universities are in the 70-100K a year. Merit aid is given to top students. If "money is not an issue", financial aid is likely off the table - that's how you get donut hole families who are middle class but can only pay for in-state college.

Maybe you can afford one K-12 private, 3 college costs, and have millions for retirement. But most people, even on this board, do not. I have a net worth of 15M and my two kids are/will be MCPS products. They can pick the college they want (65K a year for the oldest, he got merit aid at a 85K a year university).

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