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Old 05-26-2013, 09:45 AM
 
171 posts, read 447,224 times
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Help me here. Here is the scenario. Both kids live in a community with good public schools. Kid #1 goes to the public high school and gets into to school A (honors program). Kid #2 goes to the elite / good private school and gets into school A (honors program). My question, why layout the $25k to $40k for the private school? Do you put a price tag (payback) on the private school education in the future? It is known fact that the elite schools only "accept" a certain amount from each school. I must be missing something.......
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Old 05-26-2013, 09:46 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
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In that case not much benefit.

Let's say you take the money spent on private school and invest it. Can anyone provide any argument which will show the economic benefits of the private school will be greater than the money invested? (Probably not.)

Some people like the religious "training" some private schools provide. That's a different problem.

Sometimes private schools are smaller and might enable kids to play sports they might not have been able to had they attended a huge public school with much more competitive athletics.

Private schools are worth it in the case that the public school has lower performing peers (because that's really what the difference between public schools is, the peers. The teachers and facilities and money spent per student doesn't vary as much between schools as do the students between those schools).

Finally, if one was to argue on the success rates of private schools, realize private schools have selective admissions - typically the right side of the bell curve (wealthy parents are often smart parents. Those smart parents pass those genes to their kids.) Compare that with public schools which have to accept the entire bell curve. Kind of like Asians immigrating to the US. Many are successful - makes people think all Asians are smart. But, it is the far right side of the bell curve who are immigrating to the US. The "median" and below Asian is picking rice or turning wrenches at some Nissan factory somewhere.
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Old 05-26-2013, 11:03 AM
 
3,281 posts, read 6,283,112 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by exit18b View Post
Help me here. Here is the scenario. Both kids live in a community with good public schools. Kid #1 goes to the public high school and gets into to school A (honors program). Kid #2 goes to the elite / good private school and gets into school A (honors program). My question, why layout the $25k to $40k for the private school? Do you put a price tag (payback) on the private school education in the future? It is known fact that the elite schools only "accept" a certain amount from each school. I must be missing something.......
Is "school A" an elite college? I'm a little confused by your terminology.

That said, I recognize your name from other boards and I think I know what public school system you're talking about. Although the school district in that suburb can be a little rough around the edges, it's still excellent and offers a lot of opportunities to students/families. If I lived there, I wouldn't even consider a private school unless it was the right one and they offered my child a full scholarship.
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Old 05-26-2013, 11:19 AM
 
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A primary reason for choosing a school is to choose your child's dating pool. Many families want their children's peers to fit a certain profile that they can ensure by choosing a school where the tuition is prohibitively expensive to all but their target population. Watching Born Rich by Jamie Johnson was quite enlightening.
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Old 05-26-2013, 12:37 PM
 
3,281 posts, read 6,283,112 times
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Originally Posted by lhpartridge View Post
A primary reason for choosing a school is to choose your child's dating pool. Many families want their children's peers to fit a certain profile that they can ensure by choosing a school where the tuition is prohibitively expensive to all but their target population. Watching Born Rich by Jamie Johnson was quite enlightening.
Interesting. I never thought of it that way, but it makes a lot of sense from that point of view. Based on that worldview, is there more motivation to send a girl to a co-ed private school than a boy?
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Old 05-26-2013, 12:53 PM
 
Location: Southern New Hampshire
10,052 posts, read 18,101,996 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lhpartridge View Post
A primary reason for choosing a school is to choose your child's dating pool. Many families want their children's peers to fit a certain profile that they can ensure by choosing a school where the tuition is prohibitively expensive to all but their target population. Watching Born Rich by Jamie Johnson was quite enlightening.
This sounds logical, but since most people who go to college don't get married until AFTER college (many times LONG after college), the high school dating pool doesn't seem to be a good explanation.

To the OP: I have often wondered the same thing, especially parents who spend $10k or more on KINDERGARTEN (or all elementary school grades, for that matter). I can see it a LITTLE better for high school if your local schools aren't the greatest.
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Old 05-26-2013, 01:11 PM
 
Location: My beloved Bluegrass
20,130 posts, read 16,190,006 times
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Why pay for private school?
1) Peers

Big gap

2) Less or no teaching to the test
3) Not teaching to the lowest level
4) More say in education because you are paying for it
5) Avoidance of PC policies
6) No tenure, so God awful teachers can be chased off
7) No, limited, or specifically selected special ed students
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Old 05-26-2013, 01:17 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,822,244 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lhpartridge View Post
A primary reason for choosing a school is to choose your child's dating pool. Many families want their children's peers to fit a certain profile that they can ensure by choosing a school where the tuition is prohibitively expensive to all but their target population. Watching Born Rich by Jamie Johnson was quite enlightening.

The thing is, a high performing public school often has similar socio-economic demographics as a high performing private school.

Besides, high school is only until 18 leaving plenty of time to change lanes on the peer freeway.
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Old 05-26-2013, 01:23 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,235 posts, read 108,093,971 times
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It depends on the public school. Is it a mediocre school or a top school serving a wealthy community? If the latter, there would be no point in spending money on a private school. Otherwise, the private school would provide better preparation for college in many ways. However, many private schools are so small that they can't afford to provide a wide variety of courses and electives, so in that respect, students can miss out on intellectually-broadening learning experiences, compared to public schools. On the other hand, many private schools offer students the option of attending university courses simultaneously with highschool.

If the private school is well-known, students who get good grades from that school could have a slight edge in acceptance to very competitive colleges.

The whole thing has to be decided on a case-by-case basis, because of the variables involved.
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Old 05-26-2013, 01:28 PM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,329 posts, read 93,822,244 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
It depends on the public school. Is it a mediocre school or a top school serving a wealthy community? If the latter, there would be no point in spending money on a private school. Otherwise, the private school would provide better preparation for college in many ways. However, many private schools are so small that they can't afford to provide a wide variety of courses and electives, so in that respect, students can miss out on intellectually-broadening learning experiences, compared to public schools. On the other hand, many private schools offer students the option of attending university courses simultaneously with highschool.

If the private school is well-known, students who get good grades from that school could have a slight edge in acceptance to very competitive colleges.

The whole thing has to be decided on a case-by-case basis, because of the variables involved.
Don't private schools have different (lower?) standards for teachers? Do they have to be "as credentialed" as public school teachers?
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