Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

What's with all these threads on privates? Are privates trying to drum up enrollment?

I suspect its all the stuff going on in MCPS - violence, rapes, assaults... those kinds of things. And, lack of any individualized attention and crummy new curriculum. And, no text books.

Is this really happening in all schools or perhaps a few schools in worse neighborhoods? (Equivalent of Annandale in Fairfax County)

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

It is for us, 100%. That doesn’t mean public schools are bad. In this area, the schools are good and kids have many opportunities. Perhaps find math or language arts enrichment program that you can afford if you worry about academics. As for network - I do feel that public school parents are somewhat distant. My friends that have kids in private have play dates all the time, party invites… I know maybe two parents at our school and that’s because I’m actively pursuing the friendship (because of my kids). If I didn’t reach out our kids would never see each other outside the classroom. Exhausting sometimes 🙄

We can afford it, but we are total public school all the way! In my opinion, my kids seem to be doing better than friend's kids in private. So many more opportunities in a good public school. This is MCPS (gasp!)!

My oldest received financial aid at a private. It was a total blessing and he soared with the smaller class sizes and attention from teachers.

We regrettably left our younger child in MCPS. He regressed during the MCPS closure and now has serious gaps in math that we needed a private tutor for him. If we had to do over again, we would have taken out a loan to put both children in private. Education is a lifelong investment for a child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

What's with all these threads on privates? Are privates trying to drum up enrollment?

I suspect its all the stuff going on in MCPS - violence, rapes, assaults... those kinds of things. And, lack of any individualized attention and crummy new curriculum. And, no text books.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

What's with all these threads on privates? Are privates trying to drum up enrollment?

LOL

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

What's with all these threads on privates? Are privates trying to drum up enrollment?

Regardless of how much money I had, I would still need to believe the cost is worth it. Do Kindergarteners end up better humans by having s science lab? How much is that smaller class worth? We did private K and my DS did not have the right peer group as a non-reader.

Anonymous wrote:I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?

I always find theses posts interesting as we don't have a high income, but we live way under our means so we could swing it if we had to between income and savings. We might get some financial aid. What is your income/expenses?

It depends on the child. We had our child in K-2nd in private and it was worth it and given our ES, I wish we stayed private as ES was terrible. For MS, MCPS is fine. But, if we could comfortably do the $50-60K I would probably switch. Child prefers larger school with more opportunities/students. We keep the option open. We almost left this year for private but I didn't think they were doing covid any better.

Money is not what keeps us in public. Nor do I count network building as a reason for our choices in K-12. Based on your post I’m assuming you desire a specific threshold of private not just private school in general, which are very different things. If you are agonizing over it I’d suggest you make the necessary sacrifices to be able to afford.

Yes I would. If that private school had smaller classes, better one on one interactions, less testing and more education and a diverse ( racial and ses) student body then yes.

I believe in public education

We are in private thru 8th but then we fully plan to go to public for HS. So many more class options, extra curriculars etc in public. Plus I would like my kids to go to HS with kids from different social economic backgrounds.

I agonize about sending my children to private school vs public. The small classes, network they build, and facilities are something I would love for them to have. If money were no object, they would already be at a local private. Given our finances--too high for much financial aid but not high enough to allow us avoid struggling, we are sticking with MCPS. Is money the only thing that keeps you in public or would you do it if money was no object?