Anonymous
Post 04/21/2026 17:34     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
No benefit at all. You can even see the lower school buildings in many private schools. They are even smaller than in many public schools. I think middle and upper school tend to be better in private. Not lower school.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:36     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Keep in mind that families may be looking for a specific feature - single sex school, for example. Or faith-based education. In these cases, the only options are private.

Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:33     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:Sent kids to big3 in 9th from publics. Not academically “behind” at all; academics really load up in US and big jump for lifers. Kids college outcomes were excellent. We made the choice for each school - ES, MS, HS - based on our assessment of best educational and social/emotional opportunities for our kids and not the finances (which I know the private lifers will scoff at but whatever, we did). Neighborhood schools in our specific situation were a real advantage that we took advantage of. Spread out lifers over larger geography at a private school with more limited friend options (given small classes) wasn’t ideal for our kids in elementary and middle.


Private lifer here to say na, not scoffing, we did the same we just didn't get into our lottery choice and we did get into our number 1 private school choice.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:32     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
No benefit
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:28     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Sent kids to big3 in 9th from publics. Not academically “behind” at all; academics really load up in US and big jump for lifers. Kids college outcomes were excellent. We made the choice for each school - ES, MS, HS - based on our assessment of best educational and social/emotional opportunities for our kids and not the finances (which I know the private lifers will scoff at but whatever, we did). Neighborhood schools in our specific situation were a real advantage that we took advantage of. Spread out lifers over larger geography at a private school with more limited friend options (given small classes) wasn’t ideal for our kids in elementary and middle.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:23     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:Today I visited a good public elementary school in DC. While I understand that kids in public high schools may have some behavioral issues, what I saw at the elementary level was that this public school is much better than my current private school.

To begin with, it has four different teachers specialized in math, science, social studies, and English. At our current private school, which is considered “elite,” the homeroom teacher teaches all of those subjects, and not especially well to begin with.

Yes, class sizes are slightly bigger in the public school, but are there really any meaningful benefits to a private elementary school? At least compared with our current private school, I could not see any major advantage.


Private schools are very different from each other: you can't look at one private school and then declare that all private schools are not worthwhile. And, the public options that people have are also very different: a mediocre private may or may not be better than somebody's zoned public, depending on where they are.

FWIW, class size in our small private k-8 is half of class size in our local public, and classroom switching starts in 5th (math) and 6th (all classes) vs 7th for the local public.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:03     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:We’re at a “big3” elementary and I absolutely see the advantages… our local public is 26 kids with one teacher. Significantly less iPad time, more outside time, staff that aren’t stressed and under resourced and who get professional development, a lot of wonderful social-emotional learning, high quality specials (STEAM/science, language, music), fewer behavioral disruptions, and most importantly hands-on play-based learning the kids love, no endless worksheets and high pressure testing making them hate school.

However I ask myself every day if all that is worth the sky high tuition price?! Would the money be better spent invested for their future?


No better investment than investing in your kid's love of learning 🙌
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 21:02     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
We’re at a “big3” elementary and I absolutely see the advantages… our local public is 26 kids with one teacher. Significantly less iPad time, more outside time, staff that aren’t stressed and under resourced and who get professional development, a lot of wonderful social-emotional learning, high quality specials (STEAM/science, language, music), fewer behavioral disruptions, and most importantly hands-on play-based learning the kids love, no endless worksheets and high pressure testing making them hate school.

However I ask myself every day if all that is worth the sky high tuition price?! Would the money be better spent invested for their future?
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 14:00     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Depends on the private, and the public. Our no screen private is def worth it. In our public, kids could be on screens 1-3 hours daily. Screen based ebooks were terrible both for literacy and growing a love for reading. So yes, our 16k/yr no frills elementary is worth it to me.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:57     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:Private school is generally a waste of money in the elementary years, but many parents feel that they must join the private school pipeline early on to ensure that their child gets into a ‘good private.’ Public elementary school is generally equal to or better than private in some cases or subject areas - e.g. math. The differentiation between public and private starts to show up in the middle and high school years. The best advice is to save yourself $250,000 by sending your kid to public elementary and then apply out to private for 6th.


For some programs (especially language immersion) it can be much harder to enter later, since they’re building skills cumulatively from the early years and don’t always have many entry points/spots in higher years. So it depends on the schools/programs that are your end game. If you generically want to end up in private for your college app, then yea elementary school is a waste.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:40     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Private school is generally a waste of money in the elementary years, but many parents feel that they must join the private school pipeline early on to ensure that their child gets into a ‘good private.’ Public elementary school is generally equal to or better than private in some cases or subject areas - e.g. math. The differentiation between public and private starts to show up in the middle and high school years. The best advice is to save yourself $250,000 by sending your kid to public elementary and then apply out to private for 6th.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:39     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:My kid spends 3-4 hours every Saturday doing Russian School of Math for additional enrichment. Most of their class is composed of kids from other top private schools. Their school is good at teaching math and I assume the others are too, it's just that the type of people who spend $45-60k per year for elementary or middle school are the same types of people who want their kids to do a lot of extra math on their weekends.


So what you are telling me is, that I was the only one at math camp because they liked logic puzzles and knew their parents would probably say "no" to girl scout camp, but I could make a convincing pitch for math camp? Cool cool...cool.. cool... 😎
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:35     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Some private schools are conducted in another language, churning out bilingual kids. When your kid is 30 will it be more useful for them to know detail about mitochondria or speak fluent Spanish/French?



+1

For families thinking longer-term, some of these schools open up a broader set of Ivy-level options globally (Oxford, Sciences Po, etc.), which doesn’t always show up in the typical comparisons.


You don't need pay a tuition of 60k per year to be proficient in a foreign language.


That’s not really what I was getting at. It’s not just about language proficiency—it’s the overall program and where it tends to lead in terms of opportunities and outcomes.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:31     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:Today I visited a good public elementary school in DC. While I understand that kids in public high schools may have some behavioral issues, what I saw at the elementary level was that this public school is much better than my current private school.

To begin with, it has four different teachers specialized in math, science, social studies, and English. At our current private school, which is considered “elite,” the homeroom teacher teaches all of those subjects, and not especially well to begin with.

Yes, class sizes are slightly bigger in the public school, but are there really any meaningful benefits to a private elementary school? At least compared with our current private school, I could not see any major advantage.


Unless you can comfortably afford it all, no point in wasting money on private elementary school, save money for their colleges and your retirement. Life is expensive and tough for upper middle class, no freebies until system drains everything you frugally saved to make you poor.
Anonymous
Post 04/20/2026 13:30     Subject: Any benefit of private elementary school?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Some private schools are conducted in another language, churning out bilingual kids. When your kid is 30 will it be more useful for them to know detail about mitochondria or speak fluent Spanish/French?


Our kids learn more on foreign language during weekend school than in the private school. The level in the private school is too basic.


Not when the school is conducted in the foreign language. I'm not talking about one period of Spanish each day in private school. I'm talking about the entire day being conducted in Spanish/French/Mandarin, etc.