I didn't read the whole thing. But we are looking at long term options for specialized high schools, same as there were in NYC. Because of gifted testing and parent fundraising, the differences in public schools within the same district are significant. Some public schools are much better than the second tier private and you get the top slice of gifted together, so you get the interaction and peer group you want. And on the high school level, that is even moreso. Hunter and Styvescant are free high schools but you have to test to get into them. They send more kids to Harvard and MIT. Sty isn't even on the list of best high schools because you cannot go unless you score well. But Sty is a public high school, just not anyone can go. Same here in Toronto. They have these specialized math and science programs and the students get more scholarship money than the gifted high schools and get into top programs but you have to test in the top percentile for one of those 60 spots. But still public. And it seems that Canadian universities are weighting the programs now. it used to be strict grade average. Now if you take AP programs, and go to an elite public high school, you have an advantage for the better programs and schools.