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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Actually we found a sweet little school for 10k. Do we have to volunteer more as a family? Sure. But that’s also kind of what we are looking for; more involvement with the school. They are Catholic but 40 % of the kids there arent. They are as inclusive as they can be and if something is “missing” our kid will get that at home. They offer accelerated math in older years and work hard and Qing commitment with kids with learning differences. It may not be perfect but we can always switch back to public if we wanted to go back. [/quote]

It sounds nice to me. Personally I am not a fan of traditional private schools (and I went to one on scholarship) because of the extreme money and privilege. Like my classmates vacationed in places I had never heard of. Like people on the DCUM travel board who talk about skiing in Austria. I'm sure it's amazing but it would never in a million years be on my radar, and I don't want my kids to grow up feeling "less than" like I did. I didn't mind it as much as many kids in that position, but I was always aware of it.

My impression of Catholic schools is that they are not like this at all, and also often have more diversity than the ritzy privates. So, if you are Catholic or ok with a Catholic education, and the academics suit you, why not do it? You can always switch back if it doesn't work out.

I have two kids at Bethesda Elementary. It's true that it's insanely crowded. There are 40 kids in my 5th grader's compacted math class. We are happy with the math instruction (for a very math-oriented kid). A lot less happy with the reading/writing instruction. PE and music/art are considerably less than what a private school can offer. But we can walk there, and they offer after care which is important to us as working/commuting parents, and the kids have a wonderful friend cohort. The school is much more diverse racially, religiously, and economically than you might think upon hearing "Bethesda." And at least 80% of our neighborhood sends their kids to public so it's a real community feel in the neighborhood too. So to us, the negative aspects are overcome by the positives. That plus we don't have money to send kids to private schools even if we wanted to without extreme lifestyle changes.

But it's a very individual decision. If [i]you[/i] aren't happy with public school, then you should make a change, even if other people are happy! They are not you or your kids. 
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