tuition is 42% for 3 kids and mortgage is 30%.....not sure if we can continue with this though And we are at a top tier school so it sucks having to think about taking kids out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

Where do you live? This is so, so untrue. And there are great public opportunities nationwide. I'm a product of public schools - my high school in the late '80s was basically the equivalent of Wakefield in Arlington County today, very mixed economically, many challenges. I'm an Ivy grad, and also a Fed, and wanted a strong public district for my DC - there are many options in the DMV, we actively looked for a good district before buying a house, and we're very happy where we are. The only reason we'd go private is if some issue were identified that public couldn't address. And FWIW, most of my college friends send their kids to public, here and elsewhere.

Who the F cares why you and your college friends send your kid to public? This thread is about people who send their kids to PRIVATE school so stop trolling on here hating on those that can afford to send their kids to private school and or choose private over public b/c its their opinion that private is better. You have your opinion and we have ours. So tired of these public school parents looking through private school posts for every opening to promote why they are so proud of their choice to go public. F off.

And to address the OP's question, we are at about 20% of net HHI income going towards tuition for 2 and we love getting that money withdrawn from our account every month (we are on the 10 pay plan) so our kids learn some manners, get individual attention, and don't have to go to a trailer in the back for math class due to overcrowding or have a teacher that teaches an art less from a rolling cart. See:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-fairfax-more-teachers-go-mobile-due-to-lack-of-available-classroom-space/2013/12/24/2fe4f17e-6cbb-11e3-b405-7e360f7e9fd2_story.html

Multiple children, 5 percent.

Anonymous wrote:

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

Where do you live? This is so, so untrue. And there are great public opportunities nationwide. I'm a product of public schools - my high school in the late '80s was basically the equivalent of Wakefield in Arlington County today, very mixed economically, many challenges. I'm an Ivy grad, and also a Fed, and wanted a strong public district for my DC - there are many options in the DMV, we actively looked for a good district before buying a house, and we're very happy where we are. The only reason we'd go private is if some issue were identified that public couldn't address. And FWIW, most of my college friends send their kids to public, here and elsewhere.

40%. Two in private upper school

A couple of years ago (when we had three in private) tuition ate up 40% of our net income. I know you won't be shocked to learn that we moved our kids to public schools.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

If you really feel this way, have you visited any of the public schools and looked at the work the students are doing?

OK, since you've been snarky about it, have you visited any of the private schools and noticed that, more and more, the kids populating private schools are the ones who are disruptive and unable to keep up with the kids in their public school class? Plenty of parents start paying lots of money for tuition - hoping that the small classes will be magic -- only to find that their child is sitting in a classroom full of children with behavior and social problems. It is a wake up call for many.

NP here - We had the opposite experience. We ended up pulling our child from MCPS partly because of the highly disruptive kids in our sons class and the fact that little challenging learning was being done (due to teacher demands to spend lots of time on discipline for certain children and the lackluster new curriculum.) I agree that at the first tier private schools, at least, there are fewer disruptive kids and higher standards for behavior.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

If you really feel this way, have you visited any of the public schools and looked at the work the students are doing?

OK, since you've been snarky about it, have you visited any of the private schools and noticed that, more and more, the kids populating private schools are the ones who are disruptive and unable to keep up with the kids in their public school class? Plenty of parents start paying lots of money for tuition - hoping that the small classes will be magic -- only to find that their child is sitting in a classroom full of children with behavior and social problems. It is a wake up call for many.

Apologies for seeming snarky. It was not my intent. What you probably picked up on is frustration that we are facing private tuition bills when it is not our preference to send our kid to private school. DC is not at a "first tier independent" - it is a second tier that sends about 25% of the students on to Top Tier (DCUM big 3 / big 5 schools). Re behavior issues - kids are kids, I'm sure those issues will be handled.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

If you really feel this way, have you visited any of the public schools and looked at the work the students are doing?

This is 18:36 responding to PP. Yes, I've done more than visit. I still have one child enrolled at MCPS. The other child, now at an independent school, spent six years at MCPS schools. I volunteered in the classroom from time to time and always chaperoned field trips, attended all the school-parent meetings, participated in PTA and listserv, so yes, I think I have a very good understanding of MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:3 kids, 37% of take-home pay. Mortgage is 25% of take-home. Ouch.

I feel your pain, same for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

If you really feel this way, have you visited any of the public schools and looked at the work the students are doing?

OK, since you've been snarky about it, have you visited any of the private schools and noticed that, more and more, the kids populating private schools are the ones who are disruptive and unable to keep up with the kids in their public school class? Plenty of parents start paying lots of money for tuition - hoping that the small classes will be magic -- only to find that their child is sitting in a classroom full of children with behavior and social problems. It is a wake up call for many.

May be true of second tier privates that are struggling for full pay enrollment. Not at all true of top tier.

One child, less than 10%.

8.5 percent of net income (2 kids). The low percentage is partly because my employer covers 2/3 of tuition expenses. Nevertheless, we are thinking of moving the kids to the local public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of us are in lousy school clusters (or entire counties), 07:46. Yes, I know, some aren't, but most people in my DS's independent school are there after trying the public route for the oldest child, deciding it wasn't going to work, and switching. So for me (lousy public option) paying 20% of my after tax income for school, while living in a small crappy house and paying 15% of take home on mortgage, still leaves us with a decent quality of life. The key for us is if we're going to do private we must stay in the small crappy house or else the finances don't work. Since we like the school more than we care about housing it works fine.

Why not just move to a better house in a good school district?

Because my DH works for the federal government. IMHO, there are no good public school districts in the DMV. Public education as a whole is pretty crappy nationwide. NONE of my college friends went to private, but all of us are sending our DC to private schools. It is very frustrating. We would prefer to go public.

If you really feel this way, have you visited any of the public schools and looked at the work the students are doing?

OK, since you've been snarky about it, have you visited any of the private schools and noticed that, more and more, the kids populating private schools are the ones who are disruptive and unable to keep up with the kids in their public school class? Plenty of parents start paying lots of money for tuition - hoping that the small classes will be magic -- only to find that their child is sitting in a classroom full of children with behavior and social problems. It is a wake up call for many.

about 10% of net income for two kids, kinder and pre school.