Trying to figure out education options for high school - opinions requested

My daughter is a rising 8th grader. She's a good student, smart...above average intelligence, but not, like, shockingly brilliant or anything. She does very well on standardized tests. She goes to a "just okay" middle school that feeds into a "just okay" high school.My SO wants to send her to a private high school to improve her chances of getting into a top tier college. I have always been a big proponent of public schools. Our city has a lottery process to get into the higher performing high schools--my son got lucky and will be in one of the best public high schools in the state. My daughter so far has not had any luck in the lottery.So...if she goes to private school, she'll get a better education, and will be with peers who all want to get into high ranking colleges. But she's also likely be more academically average in a private school population. In her current school, she is one of the best students, so she gets some extra attention for being a high achiever, and the AP classes are not overcrowded. But her peers are going to be less college focused.My spouse went to a very high quality public high school. I went to a series of shitty to mediocre high schools (we moved a lot). Both my SO and I went to the same high ranked college. So he is biased toward a school that really pushes academic success. I am biased toward thinking her personal academic achievements and accomplishments are enough. I also have a political bias toward public schools. He does too, but now that it's our child, and not a theoretical child, he's more interested in private school. I understand that, but I'm not there yet.What are some factors to consider? How do we frame the discussion? For the sake of this argument, let's assume that the cost of tuition is not a factor. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2sinXGl