It’s a math problem. If you have budgeted 80k to spend on your daughter’s education (a large sum of money being the median household income in the US is less than 75k) and she’s really good at lacrosse. Do you spend it at a private high school where she excels and gets into a top university and, even after athletic scholarships, has to take 20k of loans a year; or do you send her to a good public HS, where she excels and gets into the same university. You then use that 80k to pay for her college and she starts her professional life off debt free.

If money is not an issue a private school makes perfect sense, if it is an issue, then sending to a good public high school (all the schools we’re talking about) is a smart decision.