Private school? What’s the verdict? Wife doesn’t work so it would be a huge sacrifice. There are decent public schools in my area. I have no idea what’s it’s like.. grew up poor. How do I ensure

Cant remember all of the reasons I wrote elsewhere, but some reasons to go private include student teacher ratios/attention to your kid, like-minded parents who can impact the schools investments and curriculum, motivated fellow students (they don’t have to be there), teacher training and advanced/alternative teaching methods (private schools don’t teach to the test), and diversity. Our neighborhood has the best school in one of the top school districts in MA and I still send my kids to private. Diversity is a funny one because my local elementary school is much whiter and less economically diverse than the very exclusive school my kid goes to. Sure you can pocket the dough and send your kids to a good public school, but there’s just an environment and culture that promotes both academic and personal excellence that I find very appealing. There is no guarantee that your kid will go to Exeter and Harvard, but they will get a level of engagement that ups their odds of living the life you want for them.
That said, it’s about matching the school and your kid. We did an extensive search, and while all the schools had great reputations. Only a few felt like a good fit for our kid. Homework and legwork is required.

Publicly educated my entire life and believe in the public school system. We live in an area known for better public schools so it makes sense in my opinion. Would consider private school if I was in a different area or my child starts to show great interest or talent in something that a private school can better provide for her (sports, arts, sciences, whatever)

I haven’t seen any evidence that private schools provide better results to justify the high cost. So unless you live in an area with particularly bad schools, I would stick to public. That’s what my wife and I have done. Oldest is in 2nd grade and so far happy with the decision.

With private you also tend to have a higher percentage of “money” families. This might make me a bit biased, but I think you have more well-grounded kids in public school.

Great Schools is the authority when it comes to rating schools. But they’re system isn’t entirely foolproof. For example, they put a lot of emphasis on state exams, and places like port Washington New York, do not put a heavy emphasis on state exams in their curriculum. And yet everyone knows those schools are top notch. Great Schools rates most of the port wash elementary schools at 6 or below. But people in the know, know better. Do some research. Just cuz great schools rates them as a 6 doesn’t mean they are bad.

I grew up poor too and we have had our kids in private school since they started. It offers extras that arent necessary but I think the additions enhance the learning experience. The decision also should take into account child personality. If they are timid, it may help to have an environment where they can be looked after better because of smaller classes.

That being said, I think in private schools you have more for potential for spoiled kid problems so you have to find a balance that works for your family needs and values.

Private school for K-6 is about class size and placement. 7-8 is about beating the high school rush / competition. High school is about positioning for Ivy League or next tier. My kid just started Kindergarten at a 40k private mainly due to the smaller class size, 8 to 1 vs 25 to 1. And my wife is happy! Not sure we’ll ever get the ROI, but a happy wife = happy life!!!

Moved to a great public school system to avoid the cost of private schooling, which if you have multiple kids can be an insane financial burden.

I turned out okay, but I guess it’s a matter of wanting “increase the probability”, if at all possible, of my kids being better off than me. Every choice opens doors and closes doors.. so, it’s trying to figure out if private school will keep the most positive doors open. It’s a hard decision for sure. We are leaning towards public school.

Fairfield County CT, in a 5-6 rated school district. 15-20% get into Ivy, but a high school grade is 4-5 times the size of K

Kids get the best opportunities?

What do you mean by decent public schools in the area? In NYC people move from the city to the suburb for this exact reason. So their kids can attend public schools which are highly rated and coveted. In those cases I don’t see a need for private school.

By decent I mean great schools rated 7+. It’s definitely not California or NYC. Think random suburb in not a huge metro area. There are some great private schools but holy moly are they expensive.

How do you post another thread? There was a good one on this topic a while back.
Lots of good reasons to do private.

Which bowl had the thread? I searched a bit and nothing was coming up.

This one. OP was an immigrant Dad. 10 weeks ago. Before the Father’s Day posts.

My wife and I have this conversation regularly. Both of us went to private school our entire lives but we now live in an area which excellent public schools and plan on sending our children there

You were raised in public schools, did you turn out well? I've not seen anything good enough about private schools that justifies the cost. If you pay property tax, you're paying for public schools. If they're decent and you're paying for them regardless of where your kids go, why pay extra for private school?

I think this highly dependent to your specific situation. My kids go to private school and it's not great. We send them there to avoid the bottom rung of kids in public school.

Things to consider: private school teaches to the middle. We don't have a lot of ethnic diversity living in a diverse area. Private schools also don't have enough critical mass to offer as many after school options, and even some class room options, that a large public school offers. Their find are from all over so they don't know kids in the neighborhood. Finally, there's the keeping up with the Joneses factor. If you have public schools rated high enough, I'd send them there.

Regarding the bottom rung comment, I'm referring to violent kids. And for what it's worth, my kids need to learn how to deal with all types of other kids, which they don't get in private schools.

I guess the magical mix is to try to find a school district that has exceptional academics and enough kids to rub shoulders with and be influenced by that will be headed to the best schools... as well as socio-ethnic-economic diversity so that they don’t spend time in an insulated bubble, but with enough of a size to make a good selection of programs available (athletics, music, art, etc).

It ain’t easy.