Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The private we could afford and fit our family’s values is a big commute due to traffic. Oldest kid did it for 3 years in MS and it got a little better once they started taking the metro. They eventually chose to go public because they got into an interest based program that fits their passion. Now they have a ton of time to get things done because they’re spending 20 minutes total on a bus versus 90-120 minutes in a car or on the metro.

Our public is much more diverse and there are so many more clubs and school activities.

The downside is larger classes and a few really bad teachers. Publics also don’t have equitable resources such as textbooks even within the same school and course.

This. I don't know where in MCPS OP is in, but there are certainly many schools that have so many different types of programs. IMO, this is one of the things that makes MCPS standout (which is why I am against getting rid of the county wide magnet, but that's for another thread).

I think also socially, larger publics is better because if you fall out of one social group, it's a lot easier to find another group. My DC has had to do that a few times between 4th and even now, senior year. If DD was at a small private, which we thought about during covid, I think she would've really struggled socially.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean "are they any???" The DMV is full of public school families who could easily afford private and chose not to. Especially in a county like Montgomery.

I was a Big Law partner making close to seven figures years ago and we never even considered private. It made zero financial, educational, or social sense to do it. I was convinced then and continue to believe now that many go the private school route solely because of peer pressure or guilt.

We took the same approach with college. Had our kids gotten into Harvard or Yale, say, then yeah we would have probably paid for that. But that was never in the cards -- as it isn't for the vast majority, even the top private school kids -- and we weren't about to pay for a kid to go to an NYU, a Northeastern, or a WashU when we had in state UVA.

Needlessly throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling just to keep up with the Joneses was one game we were never interested in playing, and we have no regrets.

This makes no sense for college if you are making that kind of money. That's selfish. You cannot die with the money so you're just spending it on what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean "are they any???" The DMV is full of public school families who could easily afford private and chose not to. Especially in a county like Montgomery.

I was a Big Law partner making close to seven figures years ago and we never even considered private. It made zero financial, educational, or social sense to do it. I was convinced then and continue to believe now that many go the private school route solely because of peer pressure or guilt.

We took the same approach with college. Had our kids gotten into Harvard or Yale, say, then yeah we would have probably paid for that. But that was never in the cards -- as it isn't for the vast majority, even the top private school kids -- and we weren't about to pay for a kid to go to an NYU, a Northeastern, or a WashU when we had in state UVA.

Needlessly throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling just to keep up with the Joneses was one game we were never interested in playing, and we have no regrets.

This makes no sense for college if you are making that kind of money. That's selfish. You cannot die with the money so you're just spending it on what?

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid the "safe" rhetoric around public school parents, which I am one of. Someone said to me earlier this year that they send their kid to a private elementary "because private schools don't have school shootings." I almost punched them. What idiocy.

If your kid is smart, socially active, and involved, a good public school is an excellent choice. Our kid is thriving there, and as someone who attended private, it was VERY important to me not to immerse them in a world of total privilege and elitism in their formative years.

What's your "good" school district? Like, QO or Blair? Or Whitman or Churchill? They're different, pros and cons to each.

Anonymous wrote:The private we could afford and fit our family’s values is a big commute due to traffic. Oldest kid did it for 3 years in MS and it got a little better once they started taking the metro. They eventually chose to go public because they got into an interest based program that fits their passion. Now they have a ton of time to get things done because they’re spending 20 minutes total on a bus versus 90-120 minutes in a car or on the metro.

Our public is much more diverse and there are so many more clubs and school activities.

The downside is larger classes and a few really bad teachers. Publics also don’t have equitable resources such as textbooks even within the same school and course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean "are they any???" The DMV is full of public school families who could easily afford private and chose not to. Especially in a county like Montgomery.

I was a Big Law partner making close to seven figures years ago and we never even considered private. It made zero financial, educational, or social sense to do it. I was convinced then and continue to believe now that many go the private school route solely because of peer pressure or guilt.

We took the same approach with college. Had our kids gotten into Harvard or Yale, say, then yeah we would have probably paid for that. But that was never in the cards -- as it isn't for the vast majority, even the top private school kids -- and we weren't about to pay for a kid to go to an NYU, a Northeastern, or a WashU when we had in state UVA.

Needlessly throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling just to keep up with the Joneses was one game we were never interested in playing, and we have no regrets.

This makes no sense for college if you are making that kind of money. That's selfish. You cannot die with the money so you're just spending it on what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean "are they any???" The DMV is full of public school families who could easily afford private and chose not to. Especially in a county like Montgomery.

I was a Big Law partner making close to seven figures years ago and we never even considered private. It made zero financial, educational, or social sense to do it. I was convinced then and continue to believe now that many go the private school route solely because of peer pressure or guilt.

We took the same approach with college. Had our kids gotten into Harvard or Yale, say, then yeah we would have probably paid for that. But that was never in the cards -- as it isn't for the vast majority, even the top private school kids -- and we weren't about to pay for a kid to go to an NYU, a Northeastern, or a WashU when we had in state UVA.

Needlessly throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling just to keep up with the Joneses was one game we were never interested in playing, and we have no regrets.

This makes no sense for college if you are making that kind of money. That's selfish. You cannot die with the money so you're just spending it on what?

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean "are they any???" The DMV is full of public school families who could easily afford private and chose not to. Especially in a county like Montgomery.

I was a Big Law partner making close to seven figures years ago and we never even considered private. It made zero financial, educational, or social sense to do it. I was convinced then and continue to believe now that many go the private school route solely because of peer pressure or guilt.

We took the same approach with college. Had our kids gotten into Harvard or Yale, say, then yeah we would have probably paid for that. But that was never in the cards -- as it isn't for the vast majority, even the top private school kids -- and we weren't about to pay for a kid to go to an NYU, a Northeastern, or a WashU when we had in state UVA.

Needlessly throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on schooling just to keep up with the Joneses was one game we were never interested in playing, and we have no regrets.

Anonymous wrote:You can just look at the demographics and see that a large percentage of families at the most affluent public schools could have afforded private.

In fact, many of them spent more than the cost of private school on housing mainly to access those affluent public schools. There are other good reasons to live in a nice neighborhood of course. But anywhere in the dmv you can find similar amenities, housing stock and commute for less because of less affluent public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Afford” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. The middle class can technically pay for a lot of things that they maybe shouldn’t. What to buy when is very important for long- term financial wealth building.

We moved to Bethesda for a shorter work commute and because we heard that Bethesda Elementary took good care of its special needs population. This was important to us since our oldest has special needs and we wanted to avoid paying for an SN private if possible.

Turns out MCPS was wonderful for our oldest. They gave him an IEP and offered services and accommodations that we hadn’t even asked for, all included with our taxes. We could afford tutoring, enrichment and extracurriculars outside of school as well.

Our other kids are taking advanced courses in MCPS. One is particularly accelerated, taking AP Calc BC and AP Physics C in 10th grade. Her school offers that flexibility and allows math courses at UMD for 12th grade.

And during this time, we invested our money in the stock market.

Now we pay for a 90k a year uni for our oldest and can afford any education, graduate school, house down payment, etc, for our children. Our retirement is taken care of.

Because we made our money work for us all these MCPS years.

The bottom line is that you can’t be impulsive about this. Financial considerations are more complex than you might think.

Living in bounds for that ES is crazy expensive though. This is a great example where sure, but they also moved to be in bounds for an affluent public school. So it’s kind of potato potahto. And I know, they can sell the house and it will still have the premium if the policies havent changed. But you still need the funds to make the move in the first place.