Sometimes "good" public schools aren't a good fit for your kid for a variety of reasons. Kids with ADHD and learning disabilities like dyslexia in particular are often underserved even in what are generally considered sought-after schools. I wouldn't judge. What does it matter to you?

Money goes much farther in bad school districts and for single people or young couples school may be 10 or more years in the future.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

+1

And stupid. You don’t get that much value from private. Many public school kids make it to college and top, prestigious colleges too. You do not have to go to privat to go to a good college.

Yale School of Law
Yale graduate
MCPS graduate

If getting into a good college was the sole outcome variable of interest, then yes, you don’t have to go to private school. You also don’t have to come from a household with at least one loving parent/guardian and you don’t have to have a childhood free from abuse or poverty.

But there are other reasons to choose schools besides exmissions. If given the choice and opportunity, parents would not choose preschools and K-12 schools merely to get them to the next step. If I hadn’t gone to a private school in the deep south for high school, I would have been teased and bullied for being a minority, just as I was in public jr high. I was still relatively happy and had friends in jr high, but I wouldn’t want any kid to have to go through that.

Exactly. It's not all about academics. And it's not just about "high performing kids." There is a quality issue. I like that my kids leave their stuff in the hallway at school and no one steals it. It's a lower stress environment in a lot of ways than public school is. Less BS, less misbehavior, more cohesion of peers, etc etc.

for the money you are paying you can replace complete contents of their locker every single day and still come out way ahead financially.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

+1

And stupid. You don’t get that much value from private. Many public school kids make it to college and top, prestigious colleges too. You do not have to go to privat to go to a good college.

Yale School of Law
Yale graduate
MCPS graduate

If getting into a good college was the sole outcome variable of interest, then yes, you don’t have to go to private school. You also don’t have to come from a household with at least one loving parent/guardian and you don’t have to have a childhood free from abuse or poverty.

But there are other reasons to choose schools besides exmissions. If given the choice and opportunity, parents would not choose preschools and K-12 schools merely to get them to the next step. If I hadn’t gone to a private school in the deep south for high school, I would have been teased and bullied for being a minority, just as I was in public jr high. I was still relatively happy and had friends in jr high, but I wouldn’t want any kid to have to go through that.

Exactly. It's not all about academics. And it's not just about "high performing kids." There is a quality issue. I like that my kids leave their stuff in the hallway at school and no one steals it. It's a lower stress environment in a lot of ways than public school is. Less BS, less misbehavior, more cohesion of peers, etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:This is the last few months of preschool before all little kids will go to kindergarten in the fall. Almost every families are local, so they go to their home elementary schools. I have talked to a few, and they are looking at private school because their home elementary school is not that great. Well, I don't know how much private school a year cost, but I know that we have been paying $28k a year for current preschool. It is going to cost a lot of money down the road if families decide to go private. Isn't cheaper to buy a home zoned to better school zone to begin with? Do you look at school zoning before having first kid?

Many think they will move before the kid enters school.

Some would have always done a private for religous reasons or stupid reasons of they think privates are academically better.

Some wanted a nicer home over what they could afford in a better district.

Remember the people going to your public schools will be your neighbors so choose wisely even if you are going to private

Our local school was good when we bought, just before our kid was born. It took a sharp downhill turn in the years after that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

You feel sorry for parents who are showing their kids that they prioritize and value a top tier education?

Growing up I went to private school. Lived in a nice neighborhood in a fairly modest house. My parents are well off but modest. Many of our neighbors sent kids to public school, which was subpar, and drove flashy cars and were incredibly materialistic. Their values weren’t exactly in the right place - they could have prioritized a better education but chose to have things like newly leased luxury cars every two years, designer bags for their 13 year olds, and constant home renovations.

please. most not wealthy people send their kids to privates to rub elbows with the rich. they think it will propel them to a higher class.

because even a "good" public school is crap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

+1

And stupid. You don’t get that much value from private. Many public school kids make it to college and top, prestigious colleges too. You do not have to go to privat to go to a good college.

Yale School of Law
Yale graduate
MCPS graduate

If getting into a good college was the sole outcome variable of interest, then yes, you don’t have to go to private school. You also don’t have to come from a household with at least one loving parent/guardian and you don’t have to have a childhood free from abuse or poverty.

But there are other reasons to choose schools besides exmissions. If given the choice and opportunity, parents would not choose preschools and K-12 schools merely to get them to the next step. If I hadn’t gone to a private school in the deep south for high school, I would have been teased and bullied for being a minority, just as I was in public jr high. I was still relatively happy and had friends in jr high, but I wouldn’t want any kid to have to go through that.

We did look closely at school districts, read DCUM (originally came here for the infertility board), look at boundary changes historically. We also researched childcare options and costs before we had kids. We also got on the waitlists for pools in Northern VA when we were pregnant with our first and still lived in DC and now we have a pool membership when most of our neighbors do not. I am one of those annoying people who makes a spreadsheet of camps and sign up dates in late December. I don’t need a gold star or a cookie. I have ADHD and being really disciplined about things that impact my kids if I screw up is important to me.

But - and I know this may be a shock OP - not everyone researches or plans! There are parents of HS freshmen and sophomores in my neighborhood just now figuring out how much college costs and how different and more competitive the application process is. It is easy to feel smug if you are a planner, but it doesn’t help anyone. It just makes you look like a jerk who is telling them “I’d like to help but I don’t have a Time Machine”.

There are a lot of reasons people done plan -
1. They are overwhelmed or oblivious and time snuck up on them
2. They always intended to move but pandemic + sky high mortgage rates
3. They grew up in a privileged environment and assume if they buy a house anywhere in FFX county, it will be fine because they heard FFX was a good school system.
4. They are more laid back than you and they aren’t focused on optimizing every element of their lives and good enough is good enough.
5. Any of the above reasons + they were fine until other people started talking private and now they are freaking out.

On the last one, I had a similar experience with red shirting. My kid has a late summer BD and we had never considered holding him back until all the other preschool parents with summer boys were talking about it. Then I was fully convinced everyone was red shirting but us. Turns out that only 1 family of 7 actually did. So a lot of the hand wringing and big talk is just that - talk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

+1

And stupid. You don’t get that much value from private. Many public school kids make it to college and top, prestigious colleges too. You do not have to go to privat to go to a good college.

Yale School of Law
Yale graduate
MCPS graduate

Thats not the only reason people go to private schools.....

Yes I did look at the school district but I had already planned on private school anyway. The house we ended up buying is in one of the "best" school districts but that didnt change our plan. SOmetimes it doesnt matter OP.

Anonymous wrote:I envy people who are so rich, private school cost does not register. I feel sorry for people who live in small, ugly houses so their child can attend private. that’s just foolish.

You feel sorry for parents who are showing their kids that they prioritize and value a top tier education?

Growing up I went to private school. Lived in a nice neighborhood in a fairly modest house. My parents are well off but modest. Many of our neighbors sent kids to public school, which was subpar, and drove flashy cars and were incredibly materialistic. Their values weren’t exactly in the right place - they could have prioritized a better education but chose to have things like newly leased luxury cars every two years, designer bags for their 13 year olds, and constant home renovations.

We intended to send to private school so we bought in an area we liked and didn’t care about the schools - elementary schools are good but ms and hs are not.

The only wrench in the plan is that one of our children has adhd and might actually be better supported in public school. We are going private for now but if he needed public we’d have to move.

Also… I’m in NY but living in a good school district means incredibly high home price and property tax. Our mortgage and taxes would be double. For two kids it’s probably still somewhat less expensive to go to public school, but it really only amortizes once you have 3+ kids.