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There's no income level that could convince me to put my kids in private school lol. I'm not concerned with them being contact with the ~poors~ and being ~corrupted~
It'll give them some much needed perspective on the world. I don't want them bubble wrapped out of reality
This. As an international who have completed public primary & middle school in China and came to Silicon Valley for high school, I have seen too many private school kids taking way to long to realize this world is not filled with SWEs making 500k per year lol
As a public school kid who now brings in 475K household income..you could never convince me to spend 50K a year on private school for my kids. My Big 10 college education was less than that annually 😂
Fair enough 😅
Our HHI is $350k+ and for now we don’t feel financially comfortable sending our two kids to private school until maybe HS. The Montessori preK we are at now has the majority of other parents opting for private school. Think dual doctors, dual lawyers, family wealth.
But we did choose our house to be districted to a good public Montessori school.
Coach
EY2 sounds like you live in the Villages.
I'm from Europe and I'm just very curious about this debate. Personally, I went to a public school in Italy and I'm not even questioning the fact that my kids will do the same. Why are so many parents in the US opting for private schools?
Across the board, majority of American families send their kids to public school. Around 8%-11% would be in private. However it gets interesting when you narrow by occupation: politicians & public school teachers.
Members of Congress with kids, it’s around 40% that send their kids to private school.
Public school teachers who teach in urban areas (where teacher salaries are highest and where private schools are located) that send their own kids to private school: 20%.
300k HHI - sending our one son to private school (providing he gets in) for 25k a year. Some relatives are willing to contribute a bit as it can be treated as non taxable income.
Strictly from the finance perspective, and if you’re looking for something better than the public schools in your area, might be less painful to move into a district with public schools that fit your expectations better. Higher property taxes but still less than $100k.
Some private schools offer scholarships for exceptional students. And some offer financial assistance for people that don’t make a lot of money.
But good luck making that argument working at McK.
800k HHI in HCOL. We don’t have kids yet, but definitely apprehensive about whether we can really afford to send them to private school when we do. Our other lifestyle related expenses would have to drastically decrease.
I’m pretty sure you can make it work.
CP: good thing is a lot of lifestyle disappear when you have kids (eating out, travel in the short term, hobbies etc). Not to say new expenses don’t come up…
Lol what? Kid sleeps in the evenings - and no reason for life to end just because you’ve started a family. Eating out has become more expensive, considering the extra hours for the nanny. As for travel, you do you. My son is 13 months and has already done 8 countries.
Private school costs vary. In Seattle where I am, it’s about $35K-$45K per year. The cost of daycare or a nanny helps prepare you. Did those childcare costs feel like too much of a stretch for your budget? If so, private school probably is too much as well. If you absorbed the early years childcare costs without too much trouble, you can probably afford private school.
I got scholarships for both my kids at Montessori in NYC - try
I went to public school (in a great public district). A friend from school went to Exeter. I went to an Ivy, he landed at NYU.
I went to Horacemann and will add - private school did NOT add an advantage in getting into these colleges the way that people envision private schools’ admissions officers having a relationship with the ivys - the historical partnerships no longer exist. It is true that a higher % gets into ivys from PS but that’s imo largely because of the parents being powerful and having strong legacy history’s
For example my friend at Exeter said that very few students got into MIT and much lower #s for Harvard in recent years because of this shift away
I’m sending my future kids to public school. If they’re smart and ambitious, they’ll make it into honors or AP classes. If not, so be it. I went to public school and I’m ok with where I’m at.
Yes Deloitte is harder to get into than Harvard!
Private school is so overrated, and often a negative. (Recent undergrad graduate here) the friends I have that went to private are all disconnected from our community, and regret attending their respective schools. Public school opens kids to a whole district of friends, connections, perspectives. Growing up & seeing people in your same economic/financial class, parents with the same backgrounds the same struggles etc, it’s dampening.
c3 yes I agree, let me clarify, there are numerous factors including the quality of public vs private offerings respective in my area. Likewise, anyone solely supporting private will have the same applicable bias
In the end it comes down to each student’s perspective. I think many parents overestimate their ability to “know what’s best” for their children & need to have conversations that takes the child’s interest in mind.. the reviews from my friends were all cases where their parents assumed public eduction would be degrading, and have made them attend schools that have no involvement in the community.. as a result, many of my private school friends have regretted their experience saying they’ve had no connections to anyone in the city/surrounding area, no perspective outside of their own parents/lifestyle etc.
Having said, I’m sure somewhere in the country or the world there exists private schools more involved in their community than underfunded public schools
With one kid, at least $400-500k family income. But I’ve seen family making less and still manage to send their kids to private school.
Author - did you attend private school?
don’t be so insecure. you did well for yourself! better than most probably imagined for you and that should give you the confidence to brush my joke aside
We’re 135k HHI with 3 children. Oldest has special needs and goes to a school that is 33k. 2 younger kids are pre-k which is ~11k. We’ve cut expenses intensely but still live paycheck to paycheck. It’s very stressful but worth it because of our kids unique needs
Props to you. I’m seriously thinking about putting both of my children in private school and figuring how to make that possible. At end of day, it’s about providing best possible education for kids and sometimes it’s not available at one’s local public school
150k is the bare minimum and that won’t be leaving you with much, closer to 200k would give you some breathing room
Well private schools in the Midwest are only $10-15k a year. High school might go closer to $20-24k but elementary and middle school is much cheaper. In my part of the country, our public schools exceed private (parochial) schools on SAT/ACT and top tier admissions.
M6
When you said it's a waste of money, do you really have experience in private school?
Did you have kids in private school, or did you go to private school?
I had my kids in both public and private schools, so I know the difference and the value.
BTW what you said is someone has limited resources and needs to do trade-offs. I can send my kids to private, fully fund their college and graduate and professional degrees, and have a ferrari if I want one. I only drive a Porsche as it is a more practical daily driver
^ esp as moving to an area with better public schools also means all other q of life factors maybe better
This is a pretty easy math equation. If you are comfortable with your earning today, then take the expected tuition (40k) add 80% to that to cover taxes and that’s what you would need per kid…then add another year 15k for other incidentals…honestly outside of day care/school, raising a kid isn’t that bad, but those day care/school costs can be crippling
We have two kids and have HHI of 390k, sending both to catholic school. Prek3 to 8th for approximately 12k/year.
I have no idea what we will do for high-school
Just one idea, you can mitigate some of the cost by starting 529 plan for your kids as soon as they are born. You can put in $75k each kid on day 1 with no tax impact. Depending on your state you can use some if not all
of the funds for private elementary-high school. Doesn’t need to be for college.
Won’t erase all of the expenses, but it helps depending on how the market does and when you put your kids in private school. Where we are, he is in a fantastic elementary school but the high schools are awful and dangerous, so preparing for that likelihood.