Reply to Thoughts on families with expensive houses and cars who send kids to public school?

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Reply to "Thoughts on families with expensive houses and cars who send kids to public school?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This questions presumes:
1. Private school is better.
2. Parents should sacrifice their comfort or convenience for their kids.
3. People should spend as much money as they are able to.

I disagree with all of those statements. 
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On your question #1 there is statistics. Here's what google gives you right away: "Mean SAT scores for students in public schools were 529 in ERW and 520 in math, while comparable scores for students in religious schools were 581 and 572. Students in independent schools had an average ERW score of 580 and an average math score of 608."

520 average vs 608 average math score is a big difference! And these are just average schools, not top private like Sidwell where presents' kids go.

On the other 2 questions - it's individual choice. If people can afford a $3mm house given all equal I don't understand what exact "inconvenience" is to send your kids private. If a family is scrambling to save for a car, the inconvenience is obvious.

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What a dumb take.

Aside from the fact that any generalization about private school and public school is basically useless given the broad spectrum of quality among each, average higher SAT scores at privates could by explained by myriad factors having zero to do with the quality of the education, such as: on average more intelligent students, higher average parental education levels and intelligence, higher average resources for tutoring, etc.  It's called correlation vs causation. Doesn't mean if you take Kid A and put them in private instead of public they'll have better outcomes.  It also doesn't not mean that, but it's situation dependent.

As others have stated upthread, spending money on a house vs private school is also fact specific.  The number of kids you have is obviously pretty important.  There are very few people--even those who can afford a $3m house--who wouldn't consider spending $160k+ on school tuition for 3-4 kids every year to be a serious commitment that's on a whole other plane from having an expensive mortgage/house.

I say this as someone who went to private k-12 and whose parents sacrificed for it--including by not having a fancy house.  I'm grateful for their decision and I'd make the same one for my kids in their situation--one kid, terrible public schools--but it's not the right call for everyone.

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