I was all ready to live the life (a life) in Paris, my wife was ready and the kids. I was pumped and while reading the LOA the SVT section flew completely under my radar.

What made me initially a NO was the lack of thought put into educating our kids overseas. We have done a good bit of research and private schools are going to be expensive over there. At one school year 1 for 3 kids would be $110,000. Year 2 would drop to a measly $70,000.

A union official told me the public school system is fine, or I could home school. First, anyone to even suggest the public school system in a country where English is not the primary language is moronic. Second, to suggest home schooling is plain laughable (not that there is anything wrong with it...no no, not at all). I find it ridiculous that a company would expect employees to happily go to another country (non-English speaking especially) and completely disregard the important issue of educating our children. Finally, I've heard, a few times, the justification that, "private school in Germantown costs $12,000 per year." It is my guess that most of us that have kids in private school probably also have a spouse that works...just a guess, but I don't see much possibility of spouses working at CDG or HKG.


Now, having gone back and re-read the SVT portion, it is not just NO, but NO-diddly-doo.