While I agree with the general advice that the first step is exploring public schools, the family has said that the are aware that the tuition expense in the US is much hi go er than the UK, but they have always been a private school family and want to continue that tradition. I think financial aid is really unlikely though so the family needs to understand that they will likely be on the hook for the full amount at almost any independent day school and all but a handful of boarding schools in the US.
I think weâre all trying to be helpful. I have family overseas (and in the UK) who have spent time in the US for various reasons (post-doc, visiting professors, etc.) who assumed theyâd need private school, and then were astonished to discover that the public schools in many (not all) âcollege townsâ were fantastic. They didnât know (or forgot) that much of our school system costs are paid locally, controlled locally, etc. So a university town which has faculty, staff, administrators living in it, are likely to be quite influential in deciding what gets paid for and why. These arenât decisions made thousands of miles away in Washington- the tax base is local.
This isnât every college or university town of course. But there may not be the need to budget in the tens of thousands of dollars required for private school if the local school system is strong. And someone living overseas may not realize that in a college/university town, there is a prevailing expectation that the kids are college bound. So it isnât hard to access a solid college prep curriculum.
In many instances, the issue is not the school funding, but who the students are. Many inner city schools receive literally twice the funding per pupil as adjacent inner-ring suburbs, but if the suburban town is the one where college professors and highly educated professionals choose to live, the school districts tend to be very high quality, because the kids are like their parents, and the parents have high academic expectations of the kids.
I think that parents coming from certain countries where there is a strong class divide expressed in the private vs public education divide wrongly assume that they need to pay for school. We all know that that is NOT true in the US, especially when the family is going to be living within commuting distance of a university, and will have the option of renting in a district with good schools. Certainly, with two kids, the bill for private school for both together would be somewhere between 110K - 140K/yr. That is far more than the cost to rent a palace in the town with the best public schools, near the parentâs university.
Frankly, if they have that kind of money to spend while earning only a grad studentâs stipend, they wouldnât be on here asking.
As for music education, unless weâre talking Interlochen boarding school, a local conservatoryâs precollege program will offer broader and more in-depth music education than any boarding or private school possibly could.
I agree - the first step is for the parent to nail down the university, and then investigate public education in the area (and private options, if they have the means).
I agree with pretty much all that you have said. On the other hand, I think it is perfectly possible to live in a town with highly rated public schools and still have good reasons for choosing a boarding or independent day school over the fantastic public school. Of course, whether or not those private schools will be affordable or realistic is the most important consideration.
Agree 100 percent. In a perfect world we could all afford the optimal choices for our kids each and every time we need to make a decision!