She will love her first year at Harvard, it's a good school. Oh, I thought you said her FIRST YEAR, not first grade. That is WOW. I went to college, 4 years, tuition, room/board at a private midwestern highly rated school and my entire cost was $1000/semester, $2000/year, $8000 total. I still don't believe it in today's world. That cost did not include beer and pizza. I guess this really shows my age.

And troubleshoot the engine management code to figure out Toyota's accelerator problems.

Why does it cost as much to teach a kid to finger paint as it costs to send them to college? What am I missing? I mean for that price the school should be able to hire Bo Jackson to teach gym class and Wolfgang Puck to serve lunch.

I grew up in one of the worst towns outside of Chicago (Legion can attest to how crappy my gangland of a Aurora was/is...East Side!). The school district was poor as hell with almost no program that I would consider college prep. There was only one or two classes that I would say truely prepared us for college, and it was probably due to the desire of the two teachers we had. The rest was just to get us the basics. I honestly didn't know I was missing anything. I learned to learn on my own since my parents could hardly speak English back then. I ended up with two college degrees. My schooling was probably 10x worst than what you have for your kid Harddrive, but I had nuturing parents who encouraged me to take big steps and walk tall. They were poor hard working people, and I appreciated their situation. It was a major motivator.

Now with kids of my own, I live in the next town over and the school district is amazing! I really didn't know what I was missing growing up. If I had schooling like my kids are getting now, I'd probably be a nobel prize winner LOL! The stuff available to them at this school district is 3x more advance than what I was learning when I was their age. One of the kid's Chemistry class was nearly as good as my Freshmen college chemistry class at the U of I (#3 engineering school in the nation at the time I was there).

So the point to all this is, I'm not sure the early years of schooling are that critical. As some have stated, the parents and home life have more effect on how much your child will grow and learn. I honestly don't think the schools are teaching the kids anything worth retaining (not that they retain much anyway) until they are in high school. Even then, it's up to the individual student to soak up as much as they can. If they are not motivated to learn, the most expensive prep school won't help. Motivation does not come solely from the teachers and school administrators.

If you must, pay for high school. But elementary is a waste of money in my opinion. It's more about developing social skills and a sense of self at that age than about learning to solve high level math problems. I honestly think my wife and I are teaching more to our kids than their teachers. The kids come home confused about their school lessons, and we help them to understand it to the exclamation of "why didn't my teacher put it that way!"

Remember when you were in college and the chicks you would pick up on Friday night? Most were probably elementary ed. majors. Remember how airheaded a lot of them were? Yeah. I don't expect much from teachers at the elementary level. When you start going to parent teacher conference and cirriculum night you'll probably see some of those airhead hotties walking around in suit pants with a tucked shirt hidding their tramp stamps (some hide it better than others).

How much money will you pay in the next 6 years? How's that compare to the loss/gain of moving?

The problem many areas have with poor public schools is that if you don't start your kid out at a private school in 1st grade, you want be able to get them in when it counts as they are filled up. so you end up spending big bucks when you it doesn't really matter.

Brilliant post :)

Wow Soukus, I didn't realize you went to East Aurora. That was the "tough" school in the area.

My sis-in-law's step kids go there, and they don't have your self-motivation. They'll be lucky to graduate.

I remember taking New York Street into Aurora with some friend after work one night. We were goofing around, just driving, and we didn't realize it became a one-way street we couldn't take out. We were scared $h!tless. Everyone knew that Aurora was were you went for your less-than-savory activities.

Holy freakin' freak that's a lot of money. For a first grader. For a year.

Hd you are throwing $ away.

Be very honest with yourselves about whether this might be a case of 'my other docter friends do it so I must also' or "we want her to run with rich kids and marry a nice rich boy one day'.

And btw itd be a lot more than $200k when she graduates.

These things might not be the case for you guys but my experience is that high wage earners feel a need to keep up w the joneses and private schooling is a VERY visible way to do this.

My son's school costs just under $4k a year, he's in 5th grade now. He scores in the top 1% in the nation for kids his age every year.

He'll be running the show when he gets older and public school kids will be working for him.
A really good private school is light years better than a really good public school, and a gazillion times better than a bad public school.
But $17k a year? Wow.

Post of the year material right there! SPOT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just remember back in my school days and what I see now. Half of my friends went to private school and the other half to public. In terms of success (the way society views success) both groups are equally successful and unsuccessful. I really don't see the advantage of private school unless public is just that much worse.

$17k/yr is more than the tuition in 1st year of graduate school at Rutgers State University. I know it because I was doing a budget today. Dude, how much will you be paying when she goes to college? I hope your mortgage and your property taxes are really low. Mine are the highest in the country, but for $8k/yr the public school is free and ranking pretty high.

LOL! For $17k she can hire someone to color for her!

that is INSANE.... That is more than a year of PHARMACY SCHOOL costs here....that comes out to about 15k a year.... 4yrs of that and you are making 60k a year starting...... Put basically.... You are nuts to pay that much....

That's a nice Carrera every year for the next 18 years! Then college!

Sammy smart has very little to do w/ being the hhic.

Schools don't make kids smart. Genetics do:cool:.

Not to add to the dog pile, but DAMN that's a lot of money! I want to say that's what my bro paid for his kids at Lovett in Atlanta though.

My kids? Small private church schools were great until 7th grade. Then it was home schooling for a year and then the public high school, which is good if your in the honors program.

I know exactl where you were. NY Street curves right a bit and bam(!!) ONE WAY street. Not far from where I use to live. Not too bad when you know who's who in the hood and when to avoid trouble. I have fond memories of the East Side... twisted huh?


Back on topic...dang, that is equal to a Carrera every year.