Anonymous wrote:It depends where you live. If you live in DC it depends on your tolerance for exposing your kids to the violence in the public schools.
Going to private school is not about great college choices, it is about what environment you want your kid in every day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to get a more pleasant neighborhood and the "best" public schools. In our case, it was also a better commute. The real estate was blindingly expensive, but at least we still have it, whereas private school tuition is consumable money - you don't get it back.

Financially, it was the best decision we could have made. Educationally, it was too, because it turns out one of our kids has special needs and his needs were well served in those schools. We looked at private schools, for special needs, and regular ones, and we realized we'd need to spend extra on extra-curriculars and therapies anyway, so why not just go to a reputable public? And our kid without special needs is gifted and has taken advantage of all the public's advanced tracks, which are better than any private - except for English is the Achilles' heel of public. But you couldn't ask for a better math and science education anywhere.

When you say that college is covered, is it really? In-state colleges are 30-40K, and private universities are 90K a year, total cost of attendance. If your kids are young, it will get even more expensive than that.

But math and science are the easiest to supplement. And science isn’t taught in most public schools until late elementary to middle school. I think reading, writing, and content knowledge or key in the early years.

PP you replied to. I disagree. My kids are 20 and 15. I'm a scientist. I can assure you that no topic is easier or harder to supplement than others.

No primary program is going to be good enough if you are a parent with high expectations, whether it's public or private. The reason is that schools need to teach to the lowest common denominator in the early grades, because reading and counting is so important to all future instruction. So what happens? Wealthy and educated parents make sure their kids are prepared, outside of school. I put my kids in Montessori preschool, where they learned to read in K. Then they went to the great local public in my wealthy neighborhood, where most of the class already knew how to read in first grade. Because parents care and have the means to get their kids ready. But the curriculum isn't what makes schools good in those early years. It's entirely parent-driven. So please understand that if you want your kid to excel in primary school, YOU need to teach your kids. The schools will have lower expectations.

Socio-economics influence the school environment. If you're in a struggling neighborhood, the local public will be focused on feeding the kids and making sure they have winter clothes when it gets cold. The level in class won't be great, but the school will be flagged for additional funding, so the kids will have a lot of attention. Nice. If you're in a middling neighborhood, you get slightly fewer socio-economic problems and no extra funding. The families are working full time and don't have extra money or time to do much about their kids' education, unless they're hyper-dedicated. If you're in a wealthy neighborhood, the class level is higher, because parents make sure their kids are on or above grade level and many families have one stay at home parent who deals with these things.

At the secondary level, curriculum starts to matter, because there are more advanced options at the better schools. In our public school system, I can tell by the number of AP courses consistently offered at the top publics vs. the others (the websites all claim they offer all the APs, but it practice they do not). It trickles down to middle school, especially for the differentiated math and world language tracks. And again, this is parent-driven. Each school responds to demand. If there's only a handful of kids who sign up for AP Physics C, the school cannot justify hiring a teacher for that and reserving a classroom. If they know that 30 kids are interested, then they can hire someone and prep a room. There are significant differences in the number of options at the high school level and they mostly depend on the socio-economic level of each neighborhood.

Same for private schools. Only the very top privates can afford good STEM labs, expensive experiments, and attract enough advanced students to offer higher-level humanities and math. Otherwise they'd be bleeding money.

This is how schools operate. Once you understand this, you can find ways to make it work with whatever finances you have. For some people, it means living in the not-great neighborhood, going to the not-great public school, and sitting down with the kid every evening to tutor them so they make the most of whatever options they have, and scrounge money for some SAT test prep. I know some low-income immigrant families who place a great premium on education who have done this, so... it can be done. You just have to want it badly enough.

But in my opinion, paying 100K for a not-great private is hardly ever justified. The cost/benefit ratio isn't there. And I'm rich

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to get a more pleasant neighborhood and the "best" public schools. In our case, it was also a better commute. The real estate was blindingly expensive, but at least we still have it, whereas private school tuition is consumable money - you don't get it back.

Financially, it was the best decision we could have made. Educationally, it was too, because it turns out one of our kids has special needs and his needs were well served in those schools. We looked at private schools, for special needs, and regular ones, and we realized we'd need to spend extra on extra-curriculars and therapies anyway, so why not just go to a reputable public? And our kid without special needs is gifted and has taken advantage of all the public's advanced tracks, which are better than any private - except for English is the Achilles' heel of public. But you couldn't ask for a better math and science education anywhere.

When you say that college is covered, is it really? In-state colleges are 30-40K, and private universities are 90K a year, total cost of attendance. If your kids are young, it will get even more expensive than that.

But math and science are the easiest to supplement. And science isn’t taught in most public schools until late elementary to middle school. I think reading, writing, and content knowledge or key in the early years.