Reply to Budgeting for Private School -- Convince my spouse

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP all your comments seem to trash ALL the area public school systems without a lot of direct knowledge of any of them. Sure there's tons of complaining on DCUM about MCPS, FCPS, and the rest, and the class sizes are definitely larger than private. But there are great public schools in this area with tons of smart, motivated kids who get good educations and go on to very competitive colleges.

You also don't seem to understand that your kids won't have the option of paying for school with loans - there are strict limits on loans that undergrads can take out nowadays (somewhere around $5500/yr.) And at your income, your kids won't be eligible for financial aid. They can hunt for merit aid, but the top schools don't give merit. So what are you going to tell them when it's time to apply for college?[/quote]

Agreed, there are a lot of FCPS/MCPS schools, unfortunately the ones we can afford and have the programs we are interested in are untenable commutes.[/quote]

So you have a few choices. Schools you don't like, private school that is beyond your current means, private school and sacrifice retirement savings/college savings, or schools you like and a longer commute.

[b]I would stay were you are and send the kids to public. I also would talk to people whose kids are on the IB track at W-L, many people enjoy the program. I would guess that the kids planning on taking the IB program are taking different classes then the kids not interested in IB and that those classes are challenging. [/b]

IF I really felt like something had to change, I would move to a school that is further out but close to one of the new metro stations and take the longer commute. Use that time for reading or some type of pleasurable activity as your decompression time. One of you goes in early and one comes home later so there is someone at home for the kids. Save money on a less expensive hour and not having to pay for private school. Put that money into retirement and college funds. Retire earlier with that extra money. Yes, the commute would suck but you can find ways to use that to your benefit. And the extra burden is on the adults and not the kids. I suspect your kids will be fine at a solid Public School and would probably prefer not to take on college debt or be worried about helping you in retirement. So if  you think something has to change, the burden from that change should all on the adults. That means a longer commute. If you are not willing to do that, then don't screw over your kids by increasing their college debt or having to support you into retirement.

The majority of kids in this area attend public schools. Many of those public school kids go to college and have a good deal of success in college. A percentage of those go onto top programs and have success. Something seems to be bothering you about public schools. Last year was a mess and this year is a different type of mess. Kids are going to catch up or end up on different pathways. The kids in honors or the AP/IB track are going to be moving at their regular pace because they have to in order to meet the AP/IB programs requirements.

[/quote]

That's the thing we have talked to as many people as we can about the IB program.  Here's the breakdown of surveying about 20 people: most of our gifted cohort as moved to FFX or gone private; most of our neighbors who have school age kid have gone private; we have two neighbors who have kids in high school and their only comment about why their kids took IB: because their friends were signed up for it -- had no comment about how the program was other than their kid rarely did any homework and had time for their multiple travel sports.  There's even one neighbor who I spoke to years ago who said they could never imagine spending money on private school, they themselves went to APS and they are sending their kid to private -- this actually disturbed me the most, they were very very much against private and so into APS.  I haven't had a chance to ask them why they made the switch.

So yeah, I would love to hear some welcome stories of people whose kids have been engaged the whole time in their APS high school years and not just vegging for 5 hrs a day with easy As.[/quote]

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