OT: Anyone Send Their Kids to Private School?

[MyAngels]

Unless you can truly afford to send your kids to this school you'd be better off using the public school system and supplementing with outside enrichment resources.

Assuming you spent an additional $2000 per year in extra activities, tutoring, etc. you'd be saving $9,000 per year. Over a 12 year school run that's $108,000. If you put that $750 per month that you'd be spending on private school tuition in an account earning a conservative 3%, you have somewhere north of $125,000 when it came time for your child to go to college. Assuming that your child could qualify for either need based or merit based scholarships that's enough to pay for four years at a nice private college. In the grand scheme of things that would be a far better investment to make, IMO.

Just some food for thought .

[Unregistered]

my child's not school aged yet, but when the time comes, she will be in private. We live in Philadelphia and you couldn't pay me to put her in public school. It's not the academics, it's the culture I don't want her around.

[DaisyMamma]

Unless you can truly afford to send your kids to this school you'd be better off using the public school system and supplementing with outside enrichment resources.

Assuming you spent an additional $2000 per year in extra activities, tutoring, etc. you'd be saving $9,000 per year. Over a 12 year school run that's $108,000. If you put that $750 per month that you'd be spending on private school tuition in an account earning a conservative 3%, you have somewhere north of $125,000 when it came time for your child to go to college. Assuming that your child could qualify for either need based or merit based scholarships that's enough to pay for four years at a nice private college. In the grand scheme of things that would be a far better investment to make, IMO.

Just some food for thought .

I'm sure we will be doing the tutoring route. But my thought on this perspective, and I have thought about it, is that the foundation is what matters. Private elementary leads to private secondary and scholarships to college

[Play Care]

Unless you can truly afford to send your kids to this school you'd be better off using the public school system and supplementing with outside enrichment resources.

Assuming you spent an additional $2000 per year in extra activities, tutoring, etc. you'd be saving $9,000 per year. Over a 12 year school run that's $108,000. If you put that $750 per month that you'd be spending on private school tuition in an account earning a conservative 3%, you have somewhere north of $125,000 when it came time for your child to go to college. Assuming that your child could qualify for either need based or merit based scholarships that's enough to pay for four years at a nice private college. In the grand scheme of things that would be a far better investment to make, IMO.

Just some food for thought .

One of the reasons we bought our home where we did was so that our children could attend public school. I went to a highly regarded catholic school and the tuition covers the basics - anything extra was additional. Also, the majority of students at Ivy League colleges come from the public schools system. Not one student in my graduating high school class went Ivy League. DH went to a small public school and had two of his classmates go Ivy League (Harvard and Stanford) I've come to believe its not so much about how the school is, but more about how the student is.

[williams2008]

My son will be going to a private school this year. The regular tuition is $4,150 per school year plus book fees of $330 and $185 registration fee. We enrolled this year on the "Bring a Friend" special where to people can enroll and pay half the tuition. Where I would have to normally pay $415 per month, I will only be paying $207 per month for this school year.

[DaisyMamma]

One of the reasons we bought our home where we did was so that our children could attend public school. I went to a highly regarded catholic school and the tuition covers the basics - anything extra was additional. Also, the majority of students at Ivy League colleges come from the public schools system. Not one student in my graduating high school class went Ivy League. DH went to a small public school and had two of his classmates go Ivy League (Harvard and Stanford) I've come to believe its not so much about how the school is, but more about how the student is.

Interesting

[MyAngels]

I'm sure we will be doing the tutoring route. But my thought on this perspective, and I have thought about it, is that the foundation is what matters. Private elementary leads to private secondary and scholarships to college

I'm see your reasoning, but private, high dollar schools are not the only way to get a great foundation. It's up to the parents and child to make the most of whatever resources they have within their means. It just doesn't make sense, to me anyway, to put your entire family's financial future at risk when you can achieve the same results with different methods.


*I'm thinking this comes across as kind of witchy, but I don't mean it that way, I promise .

[DaisyMamma]

I'm see your reasoning, but private, high dollar schools are not the only way to get a great foundation. It's up to the parents and child to make the most of whatever resources they have within their means. It just doesn't make sense, to me anyway, to put your entire family's financial future at risk when you can achieve the same results with different methods.


*I'm thinking this comes across as kind of witchy, but I don't mean it that way, I promise .

No worries. I see exactly what you mean.