Reply to Public vs. Private Schools for people living in Montgomery County

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Diversity:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/reg.../currentyear/schools/04427.pdf

Sidwell: For the 2013-2014 school year, 1,132 students (563 boys and 569 girls) are enrolled. Forty-seven percent of the student body are students of color.

Maret: 42% students of color and 30% faculty of color.

NCS: Students of color constitute 38% of the NCS student body

As for diversity you have compared Montgomery County public schools to DC privates.  Possibly a better comparison would be MD public to MD private or DC public to DC private.  [/quote]

I'm all for diversity. Which is why I'll say, from experience, that the diversity in private schools is not real SES diversity. There are very few genuinely impoverished kids, or kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, in DMV-area private schools. Also, people mark a race when they have 1 grandparent of that race, and schools eat that stuff up because they can report it in the stats someone gave above. My DCs have been in private and public schools, and the diversity really is more real (in the SES sense) in the public schools.

Some people (not all) choose private schools because they want a certain sort of diversity, but not the "wrong" sort of diversity. You can see this in posts like the ones earlier in this thread, the posts complaining about the influx of "lower income" people into eastern MoCo.[/quote]

You are not going to see truly impoverished kids in private school because of many factors but even with scholarship funding (which may not be 100%), there are lots of add on fees that may not be waived, for example, some schools require 1.) transportation, which can add on $1,000 or more;  2.) school trips and supplies, which may not be included in tuition; 3.) study hall or after care; 4.) tutoring or additional supports; 5.) school and sports team uniforms.  These are just a few add on that can be a couple of thousand dollars that impoverished families may not be able to afford.  There is also the travelling to and from school for events and sports games.  My family lives in DC and the private school my kids attend is in Potomac, MD.  I know I spent at least $500 on gas travelling to and from school in addition to the mandatory transportation fee of $4000 for two kids to ride the bus.  These are hidden fees that you don't think about when you apply to private school.  So, no, the private schools are economically diverse between middle, upper middle and rich but not impoverished.[/quote]

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