The best school is probably UCR.

After graduation, he can expect to earn maybe $400.00 per month and work 60+ hours per week.

I’m Costa Rican, grew up here, but lived in the US for ten years after high school (until two years ago). I agree with most of what you say, except for the following comment:

“So they think “We’ll send them to the English schools”, which while they certainly offer more, are generally no match for any decent suburban school in the USA.”

I attended one of those “English” schools (Lincoln School) and it is not only a match, but I’m sure provides a much better education than many suburban American schools. Lincoln school students consistently score higher than the average student at our sister schools in the US on standardized tests given to both samples. My Lincoln education prepared me more than adequately to excel at Yale and later on at my grad program at Harvard – as did many of my classmates who went to college and grad school in the US. And like Lincoln, there are at least five other schools that provide quality, bilingual education. You are right in that these schools are EXTREMELY expensive (although not as expensive as most private American prep schools). Another important matter to point out is that all these schools are located in the San José metropolitan area (except a couple that have satellite campuses in Guanacaste), so this could present a logistical problem for foreigners with school-age childeren who would like to live somewhere else.

That said, I really enjoy your blog.

Keep it up