<p>To Lexie AM - Many students need or want the community that a boarding school offers, or have individual talents and needs that the local public school can’t fulfill. I felt that my kids needed a change of scenery badly, and they were not competitive for the most selective schools. They are very different people, and very different students, but I’m confident that neither would have thrived at the local public school (which is very highly rated). Your strategy might be appropriate for the super-achievers who will excel anywhere, but it isn’t applicable for the kid who might love sports, but won’t have a prayer of making the cut for a big high school’s varsity teams; the kid who’s been branded a social misfit since kindergarten, and will remain an outcast if he doesn’t re-locate (my situation); the kid who won’t ever speak up in a large class, and would benefit from smaller classes; the kid with an artistic or intellectual passion (theater, for my firstborn) that is routinely short-changed at cash-strapped public schools; the boy or girl who might benefit from a single-sex school; etc., etc.</p>