re: Private schools and tuition

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Well, whatever program your school has said up isn’t very good

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Or his kid is smarter than Good Will Hunting.

My decision logic- three kids. 10 k per kid tuition. 39 years total. Roughly 400k (post taxable) in tuition.

VS

Magnet program. ZERO tuition. 400k in retirement and college savings account earning interest for two decades.

IMHO, school is mostly about socialization. Education can be done at home, on line, in many different ways. But it's not worth impoverishing yourself over. Being home for two months will only further drive this home.

Overreaction.

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IMHO, school is mostly about socialization. Education can be done at home, on line, in many different ways. But it's not worth impoverishing yourself over. Being home for two months will only further drive this home.

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I think this is right, although setting expectations (via peer group and parents of peers) is perhaps the biggest separator. The education is probably sufficient from good public to great public to great private. There are pros and cons of all, but around here I think it breaks down like:

Good (not elite) suburban public schools: Parents are often first or second gen college grads, usually have some college but not always degree holders, general theme is that college is important but often "checking the box" approach. Kids target bigger (SEC) schools but no big deal if you end up at a regional state school. Sort of the opposite of "aim small miss small."

Good (usually city) private schools: Parents have college degrees, often professionals and multi-gen college grads. UGA/Alabama/etc. are the baseline college options, targets are Vandy, Duke, UVA, etc. If you're bound for a regional state school you're probably behind the curve.

I grew up in the first group and now I'm surrounded by the second. Not surprisingly, both "approaches" are tailored toward replicating your upbringing. If you end up in category #1, the likelihood of you having an urban existence as an adult is probably lower.

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The content is still there for the AP kids (since the College Board isn't cancelling those tests, simply moving them online). They're just not requiring a lot of graded work.

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Mine are in 4th and 2nd grade

It's all of the above

But good private schools do generally provide legitimate benefits to students

I agree that sending kids to mediocre private schools in areas where the public schools are decent seems pretty stupid

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When you can cherry-pick your students through entrance exams and required gifted/talented early ed, you can set yourself up for success

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i 100 percent agree but the argument that there are no good public schools is false.