Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public for elementary and reevaluate at middle school. Based on your description, it's a no brainer. The sense of community that's provided by attending a strong local school is key at that age!

Private is better younger. Invest up front and reap dividends later - just like every other investment.

Anonymous wrote:Public for elementary and reevaluate at middle school. Based on your description, it's a no brainer. The sense of community that's provided by attending a strong local school is key at that age!

Anonymous wrote:Subject says it all. DH and I live in an affluent tri-state area suburb with two young children, a pre-schooler and infant. The public school system here is overall good, although some elementary schools are more highly regarded than others, and the middle and high schools are fine but many families eventually leave for private school.

We live a literally 4 min walk away from one of the "top" elementary schools (rated 9/10 on GreatSchools etc) and it's an incredibly tight knit, down-to-earth community and neighborhood where literally everyone knows and looks out for each other. When we bought our house a few years ago, this was a significant positive and we were both in agreement and thrilled to know that our children would be able to attend such a great school right around the corner. There are a handful of kids in the neighborhood (<10%) who do attend religious private schools and a very small amount who attend the school in question for whatever reason.

Our oldest will be entering K next year, and now my husband has changed his mind and thinks we need to apply to private school now. He is worried that if we wait to apply for middle or high school that it will be much more competitive and we should apply now at K when statistically we have the best chance of getting in, but I'm also not sure the high school at this one is what I want for our child. (There are other more highly regarded private high schools in the area that don't offer a lower/MS).

The school is easily a 20-30 min one way trip during rush hour, so call it an hour round trip, twice a day (!!!!). There is a bus, but not for lower elementary. So realistically I will be the one having to play chauffeur. I work from home with a flexible schedule but this is not how I want to spend my time. And culturally, our current neighborhood is a solid supportive mix of SAHM and working moms, and everyone in between. We did the private school tour this weekend and it seems to be overwhelmingly shiny SAHMs who drive Range Rovers. Also this school is not particularly regarded for being particularly academically rigorous, but rather for creating a very manicured, hand-held community experience.

I'm so upset and angry at him that he would want to pull our son out of such a nurturing community right here that we have come to love, where all of his neighborhood and pre-school buddies are and will get to be together. And selfishly I already have so many mom friends here and I'm afraid the private school moms wouldn't be my people.

The other factor at play is that DH attended private school K-12, I attended a solid public in a district not at all unlike the one where we currently live, and we both got into (and met at) the same elite college.

I am just going to pray we don't actually get accepted to this school and hopefully the decision is made for us.

Anonymous wrote:Nope. You do public. Private school, when you have decent publics, is a gigantic waste of money, and I do mean that - it's one of the worst financial decisions you can ever make.

Anonymous wrote:How about private to middle or high school?
By that age, kids are ready for a change in environment and social dynamics.
I get that entry in K would take the load off in terms of the changing school pyramids but the truth is that by middle or high school the children are bristling for a change.

Anonymous wrote:Nope. You do public. Private school, when you have decent publics, is a gigantic waste of money, and I do mean that - it's one of the worst financial decisions you can ever make.

Anonymous wrote:I wonder what OP chose for her kids. I was pro-public... until oldest child actually entered public. We last a few years and had to switch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do these posters claiming that all public elementaries are violent and terrible have actual experiences with public?

We have a 2nd grader in a "well-regarded" public school and have never encountered any violent or troubling behavior. We had one teacher we didn't love and that year was tough, but private schools also have a range of teachers and not all of them are the right fit for your child. Overall our experience at the public school has been really great and we like the teachers, administrators, other families and the kids themselves.

I'm sure private schools offer better services in some respects and they may be more responsive to parents since, after all, you are paying them. We'd consider private if we were ever unhappy with the public option, and we're certainly looking seriously at it for MS because I understand there are behavioral issues at our IB MS.

But after 2+ years in public, I can say honestly that it has in fact been a nurturing, positive environment, and we're glad for the school community in the neighborhood, and our kid has lots of wonderful friends. And we've saved thousands of dollars over going the private route, and that's not nothing.

Yes. And I would have sounded like you in elementary.

Public middle school in our supposedly good district was an entirely different matter. My oldest unfortunately went through it until we pulled him. The experience was not good.