We bought our house specifically for the public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My thoughts on private schools and country clubs are the same. People are willing to spend lots of money to control who they interact with and weed out anyone they don’t want to interact with. I don’t want to be around those kinds of people which is why I would never do private schools or country clubs.

I wasn't a big fan of the private school mentality either, BUT then found out that my kid's class at a "great" public in MoCo had 27 kids.

5-6 were ESL. Another 3-4 had behavioral issues or significant learning challenges.

At our first PT conference, the teacher told us that she was basically doing triage. All she could do was focus on the kids with the most urgent needs, and she couldn't help or challenge the other kids.

Basically, if you weren't failing or getting punched, you were not getting any attention.

So we sent our kid to private, not because we wanted to or to "weed out" anyone, but because our kid was basically being ignored at an overtaxed, understaffed public.

Whatever you need to tell yourself.

Actually, it was what the teacher told me.

She flat out said that she couldn't effectively teach most of the kids in the class.

When the public school teacher tells you that the school is broken, it's time to bail.

Or don't you respect public school educators enough to believe them?

What I don't believe is that the teacher said that to you

Anonymous wrote:I think it's (or should be) child dependent. If your child is struggling in public but you could super easily afford private for smaller class sizes etc., then I do kind of judge your choices.

I know parents that live in excellent school districts, but send one kid to private schools due to learning disabilities. After private school, the kids didn't do college, but I think private school was probably better for them because they needed extra help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My thoughts on private schools and country clubs are the same. People are willing to spend lots of money to control who they interact with and weed out anyone they don’t want to interact with. I don’t want to be around those kinds of people which is why I would never do private schools or country clubs.

I wasn't a big fan of the private school mentality either, BUT then found out that my kid's class at a "great" public in MoCo had 27 kids.

5-6 were ESL. Another 3-4 had behavioral issues or significant learning challenges.

At our first PT conference, the teacher told us that she was basically doing triage. All she could do was focus on the kids with the most urgent needs, and she couldn't help or challenge the other kids.

Basically, if you weren't failing or getting punched, you were not getting any attention.

So we sent our kid to private, not because we wanted to or to "weed out" anyone, but because our kid was basically being ignored at an overtaxed, understaffed public.

Whatever you need to tell yourself.

Actually, it was what the teacher told me.

She flat out said that she couldn't effectively teach most of the kids in the class.

When the public school teacher tells you that the school is broken, it's time to bail.

Or don't you respect public school educators enough to believe them?

You bailed on an entire system due to the complaints of one incompetent teacher? She was telling you what you already wanted to hear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My thoughts on private schools and country clubs are the same. People are willing to spend lots of money to control who they interact with and weed out anyone they don’t want to interact with. I don’t want to be around those kinds of people which is why I would never do private schools or country clubs.

I wasn't a big fan of the private school mentality either, BUT then found out that my kid's class at a "great" public in MoCo had 27 kids.

5-6 were ESL. Another 3-4 had behavioral issues or significant learning challenges.

At our first PT conference, the teacher told us that she was basically doing triage. All she could do was focus on the kids with the most urgent needs, and she couldn't help or challenge the other kids.

Basically, if you weren't failing or getting punched, you were not getting any attention.

So we sent our kid to private, not because we wanted to or to "weed out" anyone, but because our kid was basically being ignored at an overtaxed, understaffed public.

Whatever you need to tell yourself.

Actually, it was what the teacher told me.

She flat out said that she couldn't effectively teach most of the kids in the class.

When the public school teacher tells you that the school is broken, it's time to bail.

Or don't you respect public school educators enough to believe them?

I think it's (or should be) child dependent. If your child is struggling in public but you could super easily afford private for smaller class sizes etc., then I do kind of judge your choices.

My kids aren’t in K yet but frankly we bought into a good public neighborhood in MoCo because private school costs are prohibitive - 60k+ a year for 2 kids, for 12 years adds up to way more than the cost of our decent house. (I wouldn’t even say it’s extremely nice).

However, I will say that MoCo seems to have a nasty habit of boundary changing and screwing over parents who tried to buy into nicer school neighborhoods, so we may end up paying out anyway (either by private for several years or moving elsewhere prematurely) if we get re-zoned.

I think the answer depends entirely on where OP lives. For example, we have family that lives in Louisiana. Absolutely no one with means sends their kids to public there. So if I lived in Louisiana and had neighbors with expensive cars and homes who sent their kids to public, I might place judgement on their values. However most people in this forum probably live in the dmv or other similar localities where there are excellent public school options and paying for private is entirely a luxury esp if you have a top public system which often can have more resources than a private.

I have a feeling OP might live in a Louisiana type area when it comes to schools.

I send my kids to public so that we can afford the expensive house and hybrid cars.

We could easily afford private school, but our kids attend our local majority-minority high school in a Title I pyramid. Our kids are thriving and doing as well as other private school kids in the neighborhood. This is an old article, but I remember reading it when my children were younger: https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/private-school-vs-public-school-only-bad-people-send-their-kids-to-private-school.html

This is so obviously a troll post but I’ll bite anyways. But people often spend more on a home specifically to get into a good public school system. That’s what we did. It’s better to invest that money in real estate in a 10 school district (which keeps values stable or increasing) than throw that money away on private school imo.

Also, private school is a 100k per year luxury if you have two kids. Unless you are purchasing a brand new luxury car every year, it’s not an equal trade or anywhere close to it.

Also, private school (and the types of families they attract) does not align with our values. I don’t need my kids thinking driving range rovers at 16, expecting to get masters degrees and med school fully paid by mom and dad, supplementing their lifestyle as adults, paying for their down payments in their first home etc. is normal, contrary to most of people in this forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live next to Langley HS and my kids should go to Langley HS but they are NOT.  They are attending Potomac School, not far from Langley HS.  I am sure Langley HS is one of the top public schools in Virginia but it is not Potomac.  My kids just happen to like Potomac better than Langley HS.

Have they tried Langley? How do they know which school they like best if they haven't tried both?

I live by you. I'd send them to Potomac too (but they are boarding in NE for a lot of reasons). Langley is a good school, but we weren't interested in sending them there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I believe in public schools.

Full stop.

It actually seriously annoys me how many of my neighbors (CCMD, the named part) send their kids to private school. It’s like you have all the resources to build a strong community resource but your ego wins?!?

No hon. What wins is my kids are in a classroom of no more than 12kids. I have zero interest I. My kids being one of 25 layered in an inclusion classroom. I moved out of public schools because of the chaos.

We could easily afford to send our kids to private but we send them to public in no small part to avoid attitudes like this.

Anonymous wrote:I would think they have very smart kids and are not afraid of competition. I know of very rich people who send their kids to public.

OP probably doesn't live in a district with top pubic schools, so she doesn't know they exist. Rich people live in these school districts. Now you know.

Anonymous wrote:Dumb post.

Lots of rich people don’t send their kids to private school for all sorts of reasons.

Some of the public schools are better than private schools. Why do you think people pay $$$$ to live in certain school districts?