Most parents have never priced the full receipt on public school. We have. The number is $2.06 million per child over a lifetime. Built for parents who plan to do better.
Public school is marketed as free. It isn't. The audit reveals 47 line items every parent should price before their kid turns 18. These are the four that hurt the most.
Tuition, fees, supplies, lunches, activities. Per kid. K through 12.
Parental homework help + logistics + volunteering. Per kid. Unpaid.
What your kid didn't earn or compound by following the default arc.
Per kid. Over a lifetime. Most of it invisible until it's spent.
"Safe" implies the option that protects your kid. The default arc costs $2.06M per child and produces a 28-year-old in debt. That isn't safety. That's the most expensive financial decision most parents will ever make.
Schools privatized their labor onto parents. 4,474 hours per kid over 13 years. At a $50/hr opportunity cost, that's $223,700 of your unpaid work. No vendor would accept this arrangement. We do, because the system has trained us to call it "involvement."
30 same-age kids in a same-zip-code single demographic for 7 hours a day isn't socialization. It's enforced peer captivity. Real socialization is multi-age, multi-context, self-selected, and chosen.
Most parents defend the default before they've ever run the numbers. The audit is step one. Decide where you stand only after you've seen the receipt. Then make the move you can live with.
If your kid lights up at 3 PM and dims at 8 AM, that contrast is data. Trust the version that lights up. Build around them. The system isn't going to.
A 16-page field guide. 47 line items. The numbers most parents have never tallied. The receipt the institution never showed you.
After this audit, you can't unsee it.
If you wouldn't approve a $1.8M project at work without running the numbers, why would you approve it for your kid?
The audit drops to your inbox in 60 seconds. Read it once. Run it on your own family. Then bring it to your spouse.