Elite Private School Tution: Income Needed for 2 kids

[stan4]

The fact that you have to take (and score highly) on a test for elite privates pre-selects for a higher level of intellectual capability in the student body.

I mean, duh.

And your peers mean a lot.

You think Stanford is better than East Tennessee bc the teachers at Stanford know more or their textbooks have secret information?
No. It's the peer group.

As someone who spent a good deal of my life twiddling my thumbs in class waiting for everyone to catch up, that's a big deal.

[Waterdragon8212]

You are welcome to take this with a grain of salt, as the website bills themselves as the "voice of America's private schools", but most of the statistics come by way of the US department of education or other national educational statistics research. Since it literally took a 2 second google search, I decided to post it. I didn't scrutinize this with a fine tooth comb, so if you want to do that and blast holes in the research, go for it. Anyway, worth a read:

CAPE | Benefits of Private Education

Obviously, it's unfair to compare ALL publics with ALL privates in much the same way as it is to compare Hockaday vs. "Podunk" ISD or "the worst private school in Dallas" vs. Highland Park ISD. So in reality, there will never be a metric that satisfies everyone - no matter whether you think there's a difference or you don't.

There's a lot of factors involved and correlation doesn't equal causation, but if you think about it, with private schools like Hockaday/Greenhill/St. Mark's/Cistercian - parents have to go through an extensive process to gain admission. No matter which public school you attend, there will be some parents that do nothing more than sign their kids up and forget about school. Parental influence (as well as peer influence as stan4 mentioned) does make a difference.

[gocubs418]

Edit: How could I forget about standardized tests I mean, duh.

My entire point was that parents shouldn't forget about their own retirement and lives because they NEED to have their children in Private school because Public is not good enough.

But anyways, I'm out. I don't care anyways. If you have financial means and choose to spend it, so be it. If I'm paying the bucks, I better get the results that are far superior to the cheaper option.

Man, you Gen Xers are persistent! I'm out though.

[Aceraceae]

I've never known anyone who went to private school, but it seems if you're taking loans to pay for them it's a bad decision.

[serger]

Originally Posted by stan4

The fact that you have to take (and score highly) on a test for elite privates pre-selects for a higher level of intellectual capability in the student body.

I mean, duh.

And your peers mean a lot.

You think Stanford is better than East Tennessee bc the teachers at Stanford know more or their textbooks have secret information?
No. It's the peer group.

As someone who spent a good deal of my life twiddling my thumbs in class waiting for everyone to catch up, that's a big deal.

Well they do (on average), and that matters too.

[stan4]

Originally Posted by serger

Well they do (on average), and that matters too.

I'm sure some are superior, but the point is they don't necessarily have access to special resources that make a huge difference, per se. Besides a student body that's more and better prepared to receive the information they can impart.

gocubs, I agree with the loans thing (excepting dire situations), and I agree you have to believe you're truly receiving a superior product (which I think most people do).

[tcualum]

Whether or not you're getting a better education at a private school depends on the schools you're comparing and what the metrics are. I've seen some private schools that are frankly lousy and some that are amazing. The same can be said for public schools too.

When my sister was graduating from elementary school they elected to move her to a private school in Dallas because they didn't want her to have to go to junior high with the same girls who had been bullying her in elementary school. That only lasted a year though because they discovered that she wasn't getting as good of an education at the private school as she had been getting at the school in Richardson. Their solution was to get special permission from the district's administration to send her to an out of zone junior high the following year so she could get a fresh start. It turned out for the best for her socially but when she got to the new junior high she was behind academically when she had previously been identified as gifted academically. She quickly caught up in most subjects but she never fully recovered the ground she lost in math.

As for the my kids' private school, it is clearly better in so many ways than the local public school. The classes are smaller (they max out at 15), the fine arts, science, and foreign language programs are much better resourced, and the faculty and staff are given almost all the resources that they want and need to be successful. The classrooms are appropriately sized and have windows and the teachers also have access to flex spaces that have cushions where the kids can lounge and magnetic walls covered in dry erase board paint. The teachers love working with the kids in the flex spaces and plan all sorts of creative learning experiences that span classes, subjects and grades. It's cool seeing teams of k-4th graders work together on a project. The parents are also really friendly, not snobbish at all, so I've made some great friends among them.

No matter how awesome the school is though, it's not perfect. The school has a wonderful music teacher but it's too small to have a band or orchestra program or to put on large plays. I also wish the kids had friends down the street from school to play with.

[WorldKlas]

My grandchild will be attending an expensive private school for 7th grade beginning this Fall. She went to a highly rated public elementary school but her middle and high attendance zone schools are below par as far as performance. Her parents are also concerned with the social aspects of her middle and high school years. My DIL's niece attended the public schools there and had many social difficulties as far as getting involved with kids who ran wild.

My son and his wife love their house and neighbors. They have lived there 13 years and diligently worked to pay off their house so they could afford private school rather than move. Their location in far north Arlington makes sense for their jobs and family ties. I am estimating they will be spending about 20% of their net income on private school. They feel it is well worth the investment. They could easily sell their house and move to a better public school choice area, with the equity in their house and making house payments instead of paying tuition. These are very personal choices and people with average incomes have to look hard at their situations, and also their own children's needs, to pull the trigger on committing to private schools.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by gocubs418

Woah, struck a nerve.

My post was subjective. I certainly can decide who I think is insane. Also, I could care less if the wealthy, sorry, "private jet rich" are attending the private schools.

Can you provide sources where Private School has been shown to deliver higher returns than Public School? Can you provide sources that Private School children are smarter than Public School children?

By all means, send your kids to Private School if you believe in the system AND you can afford it. Delaying your own retirement or life, in my opinion, is insane.

You have an opinion, so do I. If you don't agree with it, then I'm completely fine with that as well. SPEND YOUR MONEY HOW YOU WOULD LIKE.

Thank you to the shadows for the rep! Don't get bullied by elitists.

As to your irrelevant question, Stanford or Eastern Tenn? What does this have to do with Private vs Public? I'm not going to force my children to go to an Ivy school so as a parent I can run around and gloat. No one cares.

Wow.
1. If anyone in this conversation is emotionally invested it's you. Evidence of that is your utter misunderstanding my point about private jet rich parents for but one point.
2. Tagging people who make different choices than you as insane is inappropriate and frankly childish.
3. So far as higher returns between publics and privates all I have are what amounts a series of anecdotes - see below.
4. So far as private school kids being "smarter"..........The best way to make sense of your question would be to organize some cohort analysis by standardized tests comparing say the top 10 local privates with the top 10 local publics and so on. Frankly there is no need to even look up the first score. Self selection dynamics granted.
5. So far as Stanford v. Eastern Tennessee
A. Stanford is private and BTW not and Ivy League school. Stanford is one of the best schools on the planet with exquisitely competative admissions standards.
B. Eastern Tennessee is public with very low admissions standards and competitiveness metrics.