Our kids began in public, then moved to private. If money were no object I'd send them to boarding school for 9th-12th. I think boarding school is so neat and I was always jealous of college friends who were boarding alums. And even now, I think boarding alums all have a certain something about them.

I don’t know to be honest. But I do know that I don’t feel like my kids are thriving in their very well regarded public. Other kids seem to be doing fine. Not sure if it’s us or the school or what.

Anonymous wrote:

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)

no, its happening in the "good schools"

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?

No, I would not send my kids to private, but then I had kids the private schools don’t want.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in EOTP DC and are ok with our school situation until middle school. So are planning for private from 6th onward. On balance, it may make better financial sense to move to a better school zone, but we have a super cheap mortgage at the moment, like our neighborhood, and have enough resources to meet our savings goals and pay private for two kids. But if we lived in a solid school zone NOW and had a cheap mortgage there, yeah, we’d be public all the way through because that half mil could go a long way elsewhere!!!

If you like your neighborhood but refuse to consider your zoned middle or high school, you are a leech. You are one of those types that has probably greatly benefited from gentrification with your “cheap mortgage” but won’t do your part to help improve the local schools. Sick.

She’s a leech because she’s willing to pay taxes for a school she doesn’t use? OK then.

Anonymous wrote:We are in EOTP DC and are ok with our school situation until middle school. So are planning for private from 6th onward. On balance, it may make better financial sense to move to a better school zone, but we have a super cheap mortgage at the moment, like our neighborhood, and have enough resources to meet our savings goals and pay private for two kids. But if we lived in a solid school zone NOW and had a cheap mortgage there, yeah, we’d be public all the way through because that half mil could go a long way elsewhere!!!

If you like your neighborhood but refuse to consider your zoned middle or high school, you are a leech. You are one of those types that has probably greatly benefited from gentrification with your “cheap mortgage” but won’t do your part to help improve the local schools. Sick.

I would not... wife would. If we were making over 500k/year, that'd be about the point where I'd say money wasn't (much) of an issue to send our kids to private... at that point while I still would prefer public, I'd put up less of a fight at that point if she felt really strongly about it (as I anticipate she would) and we'd probably wind up applying and going, but only if we got accepted into a top tier (Sidwell, Potomac, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:I believe in public education

Same. My in-laws have not only offered to pay for private school but beg is to take them up on it. They are not a fan of public school. So while we could send our kids to private in out dime, but it would make things tighter than I’d like, we literally could send them at no cost to us. And we don’t. Happy with out FCPS ES. Kids both are in AAP (our base is a center). Might feel differently if they weren’t.

We are in EOTP DC and are ok with our school situation until middle school. So are planning for private from 6th onward. On balance, it may make better financial sense to move to a better school zone, but we have a super cheap mortgage at the moment, like our neighborhood, and have enough resources to meet our savings goals and pay private for two kids. But if we lived in a solid school zone NOW and had a cheap mortgage there, yeah, we’d be public all the way through because that half mil could go a long way elsewhere!!!

We did public because my kids were STEM orientated and the public schools in my area offered the best STEM classes; for example, we couldn't find a private that would offer organic chemistry in high school. However, we heavily supplemented the humanities side and enrolled mine in a young writers club year around, as the writing side in public is super weak. I also made mine take 4 years of Latin. I'm European and in my country everyone takes Greek and Latin starting in 7th grade.

Anonymous wrote:My kids don’t need to be surrounded only by super wealthy kids with helicopter moms, daily tutors and lessons, fancy spring break vacations, luxury cars in HS, etc.

100% agree.

If you live in a good public school district — which it seems you do — I suggest you try it out. If you reach a point where it does not work for you, make the switch. We were in a high-performing DCPS ES initially but needed to make the switch to private because of the large class sizes (30) and a few other factors. While the smaller class sizes, differentiation and focused attention have helped our child thrive, we have other friends with children still in public who are doing just fine. The main difference I see is that our friends are more vigilant about academic enrichment in areas they think their public is weaker on whereas much of the enrichment is already in the curriculum or in the after school clubs taking place at our school. Because we are not in our neighborhood public school we spend more time shuffling our child to play dates, however, so it is a trade off.

I would not. Unless my kids were being bullied or something. We have an HHI of 500, could definitely afford private but we are committed to public schools

If I lived in a smaller or less affluent town, yes, private.

But here? Nah. My kids don’t need to be surrounded only by super wealthy kids with helicopter moms, daily tutors and lessons, fancy spring break vacations, luxury cars in HS, etc.

Yes - but "if money was not an issue" is a high bar for us. We make roughly 1 million/year so we could technically afford private school for our kids but don't think it is worth 100k in post-tax income when compared to our pre-covid public school experience in a strong school district. That is money that could be going to saving/investing, college, retirement, etc. It also locks us into our jobs. I think 2 million/year is our threshold for "if money were not an issue" because we would be saving a lot more each year.