Publics probably have winning record over privates. Curley won B and lost to all Balt and Harford publics they played and they are top half of the privates. JC did beat 1a public Fallston in OT and may still be celebrating this feat. KI beat Spaulding and I also remember Westminster crushing St. Joe so bad that they no longer play. 2/3rds of private are horrible at lax. Playoff "A" conference is head and shoulders better but thats like 6 out of like 30 teams. Years ago MIAA was way different, now not nearly as many playing at next level then what it was in past. Most MIAA schools are now looking to bring in out of state kids to compete since talent is diluted. School wise things have changed with SAT no longer as important. More emphasis is on AP courses which is same course at public school then it is at private (just free, not 30k with same class sizes). Now public school kids at 11th grade take college courses for college credits for free. Unfortunately you can't start college classes at privates till after graduation. Most recruiting is done through club ball now and out of season showcases. So if kid can play they will be found. A lot more options now then in the past to get good coaching. HS lax season is still only 3 out of 12 months. Before it was everything now just a small part of big picture. Privates do much better when at cocktail hour and the country club if that is what you are about.
Some factual check-ins:
1. Public schools likely have a winning record here because only the top 10% of public school programs are willing to play the bottom 70% of private schools. Carroll Co Schools are not asking to play McDonogh, or really anybody in the top 90% of MIAA.
2. Yeah about the SAT - Yale and Dartmouth in the last week alone, have both re-instituted the SAT requirement. SAT-free was a Covid-era PR stunt and it's coming to an end (my kid isn't great on long tests, so I wish you were correct about this....but you're not).
3. If you think class sizes are the same in public and private HS, I'd love to know the basis for that. I do know that the privates have 4-5 college counselors for every 1 at a public HS. I know at my public HS, the entire HS of 1500 kids had a total of 2 college counselors.
4. If you think your child has "won college" by getting a degree in 3 or 4 semesters, I mean, they will probably be a model government employee who gets 3.5/5 stars on their annual review and their full 2% annual COLA increase. I guess the bigger question is, why haven't you saved enough money for them to attend 4 years of college? "Sorry kids, you can only go for 3 semester, and ya gotta pay your own loans!" Inspiring parenting.
5. Yeah "if a kid can play they'll be found," instagram, Millon Events, etc etc but generally if you are looking for the best pizza, do you go to the Pizza Convention at the MD Fairgrounds...........or do you go to North Jersey and NYC? The best public schools in MD and VA spit out between 0 and 1 D1 recruits per year. Most high schools across the country produce 0 per year, and 0 per 5 years. MD/DC private schools, each school 10+ per year, in addition to another 10+ who go D2/D3.
6. You can pretend that Prep School isn't a thing, and that it has no value, and that you are a financial mastermind by buying a house in the best (in 2006) school district. And if you have 4 kids, heck, you might even be correct on the value proposition. But there's no denying the fact that 91% of private school students return to their sophomore year of college, while only 55% of public school graduates do.
7. Talking about cocktail hour and country clubs this way comes from a mindset of a guaranteed government salary, for which I commend you, and on some days I'm jealous of this. For the rest of us who can be fired (or our businesses run out of money), we succeed at work by having human relationships, by networking with people, and by identifying people who could benefit from our services (or vice versa). By learning new things, techniques, courses, or coaching that friends and competitors are taking advantage of. That happens at cocktail hours, at baseball games, on the golf course, while shooting sporting clays, and on fishing trips. It doesn't happen on a City Government WebEx between the work hours of 830-330 with an hour guaranteed lunch.
