Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, and the Amish have solved relatively cheap K-8 education. Mormons have figured out how to provide cheap college.

But running inexpensive in-person high schools are very hard. I can only think of three types: part time schools (e.g. University-Model affiliates, a local representative being Coventry Christian in Warrenton, which has students meet three days a week), large home school co-ops (e.g. Classical Cottage Consortium in Winchester, where students meet 1-2 days a week), and just sending your high school-aged kids to the local community college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: OP has triggered that anti SJC poster. So predictable.

To answer OP's original question though -- ADW wasn't established until 1939. By then many of the independent Catholic schools had been around for 100+ years. The history is actually quite fascinating.

There is a ton of choice at all price points in our area which isn't the case in the rest of the country.

Fwiw I hope you don’t think I’m anti-SJC just because I’m sharing facts about how student athletes are imported and housed by other SJC families…and all the full pay families collectively subsidize such things.

How would I know this if I didn’t have kids affiliated with the school?

Not a hater. Just a catholic mom who finds some of the choices made by SJC, GC, and other catholic schools interesting. Prioritizing athletes and non-Catholics for the limited seats in area catholic high schools is an interesting decision imho. YMMV

There are not "limited seats" in DMV Catholic high shcools. There are actually more high school seats than Catholic school 8th graders. Perhaps a given student didn't get into exactly the school they wanted, but there absolutely are enough seats at Catholic schools if you are prioritizing a Catholc high school education.

Teachers have to get paid. And private schools still pay much less than mcps.

Anonymous wrote:Catholic schools in Pittsburgh are half the price of the high schools here. One assumes they are partly subsidized by the archdiocese there. ADW could do that too. It's a matter of priorities. And clearly the ADW thinks we're all rich enough to afford the tuition.

All the private schools in Pittsburgh are cheaper than private schools in DC. The most expensive non-Catholic high schools in PGH are $40K or under, while here they are hitting $60K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carroll

Quoting myself here!

OP asked “why isn’t there . . . “ when exactly what they asked about exists, and yet naming it got no response.

Interesting

OP was specifically saying in the Rockville area.

But people are discussing SJC at length.

Fair, but I guess the OP should come back and provide more specific criteria because it's really all relative, isn't it? SJC is close to $30k, which may be out of reach if you want to be closer to $20k. And it's in NWDC, which depending on where you are in Rockville could be 15 to 20 miles away, so not exactly within a stones throw.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carroll

Quoting myself here!

OP asked “why isn’t there . . . “ when exactly what they asked about exists, and yet naming it got no response.

Interesting

OP was specifically saying in the Rockville area.

But people are discussing SJC at length.

We’re middle class and our DC goes to SJC. We were so fortunate that our DC had a very high HSPT score which them the maximum merit scholarship, and did very well in the audition for the music scholarship which gave us a higher than listed music scholarship amount. It brought the tuition down to below $20k. We’re extremely happy that it worked it so well. We give back to the school by donating a higher amount to the annual fund than we would have normally.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carroll

Quoting myself here!

OP asked “why isn’t there . . . “ when exactly what they asked about exists, and yet naming it got no response.

Interesting

OP was specifically saying in the Rockville area.