Anonymous wrote:We were in a two top - notch public districts before switching to private last year.

First public school K to 3,
Second public school 4 and 5 (MOCO)

Then switched to private for 6th last year and now in 7th, same sex school. We are average barely above middle class and no FA (yet). All I can say is we feel every penny has been worth it.

Taking a very rough but conservative estimate of "benefits" for what I pay:
Same # school days (175 compared to MoCO)
Monthly Fee($)

Longer school days (1.5hr/day more) $200
Music for class of 6 kids $150
Extra class on Instrument ($20 * 4) $80
Better Art Content $100
Lot more number and relevant field trips by subject($50 * 1 avg monthly) $50
FL Classes $150
Team based camps (prorated) $50
Break Fast + Lunch ($15 * 20) $300
Olympiad Practice in Math in addition to regular math monthly $50
Engineering Class additional $100
Significantly more lab work and related material $100
PE Games and Intra murals & saving me outside school work $100
Richer Curriculum (world studies, better instruments, etc) $100
Much smaller class size = more price per student = more participation etc $200
Teaching Style and work content $100
Total, very conservative $1,830

Cost of my child NOT saying "bored/unchallenged" any more; daily experience is valued more than ends of which college she would go to = Priceless

I realize one might say the numbers above are estimated too high or too low. But that is a rough price tag I would put. My kid always said she barely learnt a thing in her public schools , the hot shot top rated ones that many smart kids have gone too over the years. My kid loved her schools and had a great group of friends but the learning content was mediocre at best with many "useless" days.

Now she is not only super challenged, she enjoys each day and has for the past 1.5 years and vows to never shift again.

I will do my best to support her as much, that is my job as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:Every time I look at this thread's title, I think it says Pirate School.

Arrrgh, maties!

Anonymous wrote:Biggest sellers (beyond the religious education which DD gets through our parish anyway) were arts, music, PE, AND FL in ES multiple times a week EVERY week all year long, not just as a once a week "special" that would change every marking period.

We also wanted to avoid over crowded classes and the constant shifts of educational fads.

Anonymous wrote:I conclude private for the simple fact there isn't a police officer stationed there that slams disrespectful kids on desks. I wouldn't want that to be my kid, wouldn't want my kid to witness such a thing, and certainly wouldn't want my kid sitting being friends with such a rude child. Someone just told me that MoCo high schools have police officers stationed there. This is supposed to be a joyful place of learning not some boot camp.

Anonymous wrote:I conclude private for the simple fact there isn't a police officer stationed there that slams disrespectful kids on desks. I wouldn't want that to be my kid, wouldn't want my kid to witness such a thing, and certainly wouldn't want my kid sitting being friends with such a rude child. Someone just told me that MoCo high schools have police officers stationed there. This is supposed to be a joyful place of learning not some boot camp.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public schools teache one skill really, really well and that's to be cynical. Kids watch as adults have to put up with tons of bullshit regarding testing and student behavior. Despite what they'll say in public, kids coming from public schools have less empathy because of the crap they've observed. If you did some of the things in private school that you can get away with in public you'd be gone like s..t through a goose. Privates aren't perfect but there are, especially in DC, many folks willing to take your place. Get out of line the man he comes and takes you away. If you bring a weapon to a private school it's goodbye. In publics they'll try and cover it up and give you in school detention. It wasn't always that way but that's the way it is now. Girls can be sexually harassed at publics ...wouldn't happen for a day in privates. GFL with your public schools. I'll sell my plasma before my kids sit in a BS public school.

Well, there is a counter-anecdote to every anecdote. I have never encountered as many world-weary, cynical, condescending, too-cool teenagers as I knew at my exclusive private school. We had a world-class string quartet come perform and the kids in the audience laughed at them. Kids bullied each other massively and relentlessly for not being good enough at sports, not rich enough, not from the right neighborhood. Kids were obsessed with money, and as high schoolers already planned to go into finance and law because there was no big money to be made in other professions. I know these people as adults and they have not changed. I think the data actually show that the 1% have less empathy than the rest, not more. If I have a good public option (and I do), I don't think I want to subject my less-than-rich, less-than-sporty children to the attitudes so common at elite privates. Watch your own attitude, you who use "bullshit," "crap," "sh.t," and "GFL" (good f*cking luck). Sure you're not a teenager?

Anonymous wrote:"I feel...." doesn't answer this.
"A higher percentage of kids from private school attend college...." really doesn't prove anything because of the correlation of wealthy parents (who can afford private school) and higher intelligence/higher college participation. Meaning: Those kids in private school probably would have attended college anyway if they hadn't attended private school.
"My private school provides religious education..." OK, I suppose that can't easily be replicated in public school though parents can provide religious education extracurricularly.

If your next door neighbors' kids got into equivalent colleges/universities and/or excelled academically equivalently as your private school educated kids, did the private school necessarily outperform the public school? (And "outperform" often means "provides better peers" because there's a bigger difference between the students at high and low performing schools than there is between the faculty/resources/equipment/labs/etc at high and low performing schools.

Bottom line: If you live in a neighborhood with fairly high performing students, why send your kids to private school? Can you conclude the private school provides significantly (at least $20K year per kid) better service? If you are like my parents were, had a single kid and lived in a neighborhood with poor performing peers (all of my street buddies were burned out pot heads and coke addicts and hardly any graduated high school), then private school (where I attended) certainly provided a better product and service due to the high performing peers (Vin Scully's kids, movie stars' kids, etc).

Anonymous wrote:Every time I look at this thread's title, I think it says Pirate School.

Arrrgh, maties!

Anonymous wrote:Ironically, I think high achieving AA males are more supported in the Big 3 schools ( in Middle and High School) than in publics, where there are very few blacks in the highest level classes.