This is a hard question, as we are a family where private school is a stretch financially, even with FA. Our kids moved to private in 2019-20 (Pandemic year), which was coincidence. We were glad they had some form of in-person schooling that first year post-COVID, and socially private school has been great for my kids. But it's a stretch financially, and my kids aren't academic all-stars, so sometimes I wonder why we are paying so much for our kids to get mediocre grades. But then my friends with kids in our local public HS rant about the issues they have (the school is one of the best in the state) and I thank my lucky stars we are able to give our kids a better experience.

In summary, I guess it depends on my mood

Super happy also. We only experienced public before and it would be a lie to say it was in any way comparable to what we're experiencing, even in a small parochial private school that isn't one of the big private schools in the area. What I've noticed most of all is that the kids aren't rushed through curriculum in the name of testing. Teachers are thorough and there is an emphasis on good writing, grammar, reading full books. Just the fact that the teacher actually spends time reading a book out loud to the students as opposed to playing a video of someone reading a book on youtube. Huge difference. Also no games on laptops, no excuses not to go outside for recess, more play based learning in the early grades. In many ways similar to what public school was like 20 or 30 years ago before common core standardized everything. I'm sure that if given the same standardized test, test scores would probably similar between a good public and small private but the experience itself has been very different so far, making the test scores almost irrelevant because that's not the focus. Everyone's mileage may vary when it comes to that though.

Yes, absolutely happy we moved from DCPS to private for high school for both our kids.
We started at a charter. Left in mid elementary for DCPS. That was fine until our post-pandemic middle school experience killed any hope we had of DCPS working for either of our kids through HS. They’re now at SJC and despite both kids being very different from each other they both are thriving.

Super happy, wish we had moved sooner. Left in 8th, thriving in year 10. Guess I'll be that grandparent who insists on paying tuition someday.

NP. Absolutely delighted, would pay double for the increase in quality of education at private.

We moved the oldest after DC’s experience in public middle school that featured bathrooms DC would not use because of safety issues, vaping literally in the classroom, and no full books assigned to read in three years.

The younger kids moved after elementary school, we weren’t making that mistake again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Does that really matter in the grand scheme? Are you claiming your sibling is less successful in life because they stayed at a “W” school?

No. Likely would have been the same economic outcome even if reversed. I am saying that the quality of education at even an average independent school exceeds that of even an excellent public one.

DP: And really, this is obvious, isn't it? A stellar education does not by virtue of itself mean one chooses or gets a lucrative career; and one with a lucritive career does not always have a stellar educaiton (or any at all). There are many ways to make a lot of money, and you don't always need a great education to do that. Don't we all know some pretty dim millionaires as well as some brilliant minds who don't make a lot of money at the work they do, even when that work is vitally important to the common good?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Does that really matter in the grand scheme? Are you claiming your sibling is less successful in life because they stayed at a “W” school?

No. Likely would have been the same economic outcome even if reversed. I am saying that the quality of education at even an average independent school exceeds that of even an excellent public one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both kids went the private for high school after mostly very good experiences in DCPS (and a DC charter school).

I don't love the money we spent (and they went to Catholic schools so while it was big money it wasn't BIG money) and wish we had more family vacations, but overall it was the bettter choice for both, for different reasons.

DC 1 went to SJC for the Benilde program, providig supports for mild learning issues

DC 2 went to a more academic Catholic school and did very well.

I was talking with some friends who had kids in DCPS one day when I suddenly realized that private school had really removed a stressor from my life. I can't describe what it was, precisely, but dealing with the school was just easier, more straightforward, fewer days off to juggle, fewer regular money/fundraiser stress, nicer facilities. I have long been a vocal supporter of DCPS and treasure the time spent in elementary and middle school, kids had wonderful teachers, made lifelong friends (the kids and also us parents) but somehow not dealing with DCPS was just.... a relief of pressure I didn't even realize we had.

Thanks for putting this into words. I feel the same - we have kids in DCPS (elementary and finishing middle) and our oldest has applied private for HS. I am sad to leave DCPS (if she gets in and chooses to) in some ways, but when I imagine how much less space in my brain I will have to dedicate to pushing this boulder up a hill - the advocacy, the emailing, the budget crises, all of it - I sense I will feel relieved. Not a reason to do it, but a nice side effect if it happens. I am very much stressed about the $$, however.

Just FYI…I don’t quite understand what PP means when she says the “regular fundraiser/money stress” at SJC vs DCPS is gone.

There will be fairly often fundraising emails and various club (and off season sports training fees) fees at a school like SJC. You can obviously ignore the fundraising fees (but not the club or sports fees).

Having a kid at both SJC and DCPS for HS, there isn’t much difference from that perspective…and actually the HSA fundraising pleas for DCPS HS are quite minimal.

Depends on how involved you were as a parent in your public school. In private shcools, they have development departments paid to manage all the fundraising -- parents just get invitations. In public school, it is all on the parents to plan, organize, ask for money and answer, and then spend it for the school. Completely different.

This is specific to SJC and DCPS. SJC also has parents heavily involved in fundraising, however, they raise it for the school and not for an independent PTO/HSA.

All that said, I doubt PP was actually running their PTA or they would have mentioned that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both kids went the private for high school after mostly very good experiences in DCPS (and a DC charter school).

I don't love the money we spent (and they went to Catholic schools so while it was big money it wasn't BIG money) and wish we had more family vacations, but overall it was the bettter choice for both, for different reasons.

DC 1 went to SJC for the Benilde program, providig supports for mild learning issues

DC 2 went to a more academic Catholic school and did very well.

I was talking with some friends who had kids in DCPS one day when I suddenly realized that private school had really removed a stressor from my life. I can't describe what it was, precisely, but dealing with the school was just easier, more straightforward, fewer days off to juggle, fewer regular money/fundraiser stress, nicer facilities. I have long been a vocal supporter of DCPS and treasure the time spent in elementary and middle school, kids had wonderful teachers, made lifelong friends (the kids and also us parents) but somehow not dealing with DCPS was just.... a relief of pressure I didn't even realize we had.

Thanks for putting this into words. I feel the same - we have kids in DCPS (elementary and finishing middle) and our oldest has applied private for HS. I am sad to leave DCPS (if she gets in and chooses to) in some ways, but when I imagine how much less space in my brain I will have to dedicate to pushing this boulder up a hill - the advocacy, the emailing, the budget crises, all of it - I sense I will feel relieved. Not a reason to do it, but a nice side effect if it happens. I am very much stressed about the $$, however.

Just FYI…I don’t quite understand what PP means when she says the “regular fundraiser/money stress” at SJC vs DCPS is gone.

There will be fairly often fundraising emails and various club (and off season sports training fees) fees at a school like SJC. You can obviously ignore the fundraising fees (but not the club or sports fees).

Having a kid at both SJC and DCPS for HS, there isn’t much difference from that perspective…and actually the HSA fundraising pleas for DCPS HS are quite minimal.

Depends on how involved you were as a parent in your public school. In private shcools, they have development departments paid to manage all the fundraising -- parents just get invitations. In public school, it is all on the parents to plan, organize, ask for money and answer, and then spend it for the school. Completely different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Does that really matter in the grand scheme? Are you claiming your sibling is less successful in life because they stayed at a “W” school?

DP: Some people think that a high quality education is something to be sought out and valued, regardless of career outcome.

Depends on one's definition of a high quality education, and what constitutes a learning experience varies child to child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Does that really matter in the grand scheme? Are you claiming your sibling is less successful in life because they stayed at a “W” school?

DP: Some people think that a high quality education is something to be sought out and valued, regardless of career outcome.

And many others don’t…even many private school parents who care very much about their kids’ leveraging their private school network for professional success. PP provided a Trading Places kind of example…one at private and one at public, so eager to know if life outcomes were impacted much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents switched me in 9th and was a huge improvement. As a result, my kids never set foot in a public school through 12th. The oldest did choose a state flagship and, contrary to one of the upstream posts, was plenty prepared to self-advocate and navigate the bureaucracy inherent in those institutions. If you have the money, private is nearly always the best choice.

Private schools vary widely in this areas as do publics. The very good public HS (and I mean like the top five in either side or the river; not DCPS) beat out academically most of the mediocre private schools because we as taxpayers spend a lot on our educational systems and the base of families in the zones tend to be rich and very very educated. That being said, we live in one of those HS zones and we chose a Big3 and we did so for academic reasons.

Rational people send their kids to privates all the time so the kid can make the sports teams or can get 1:1 daily oversight on whether they are turning in their homework or just so they can be around other kids who pay for school and that social set is important to the parents. But I think it’s a really big stretch to say that private is “almost always” better than public. Frankly, I thought the kids who left our really affluent public ES for private were generally weird kids who had some difficulty and required extra attention.

For me it was a "W" school to a MoCo independent school (by choice). My sibling stayed in public (also by choice) and received an inferior education.

Does that really matter in the grand scheme? Are you claiming your sibling is less successful in life because they stayed at a “W” school?

DP: Some people think that a high quality education is something to be sought out and valued, regardless of career outcome.