Where is the fat in private schools?

[Anonymous]

One the one hand the cost of tuition is exorbitant and the cost of building maintenance and teachers salaries is much lower.

Who is responsible for the excess costs?

My guess is that with more reasonable administrative salaries and more conservative financial aid policies the Tuition could be lowered by 20 percent.

Any other ideas about where the fat is coming from?

[Anonymous]

I mean, is there fat? I don’t think you’ve established that as fact. You’re just saying tuition is “exorbinant”.

In 2025 APS funding was ~$25k per student. I could easily see those costs doubling when you factor in smaller classes, no economies of scale for grounds and facilities, financial aid, etc.

[Anonymous]

PS we were paying ~$550 a week for daycare and I thought that was exorbinant. But it was a non-profit co-op paying 82% of revenue back as salaries and benefits and those teachers weren’t making a lot. Childcare is expensive.

[Anonymous]

It's really hard to compare per pupil spending reported by public school systems and private school tuition. There are huge buckets that can be accounted for differently - capital costs, pension obligations, and special education.

But as far as your belief that simplistic policy changes could lower private school tuitions, of course! That's why there's so much variance in private school tuition.

[Anonymous]

I don't quite understand it either, especially as education costs have soared well above inflation for the last 20 years. What exactly is causing it?

I do know DC schools are nearly 20k more expensive than Baltimore schools, and that may be due to salaries and HCOL but I do also think there is an element of people's willingness to pay that allows the fees to go up so much. The schools will always find a reason to need to charge that much tuition. Chicken and egg situation.

[Anonymous]

We are subsidizing the athletes.

[Anonymous]

Large facilities are expensive to maintain. Health insurance for faculty and staff also very expensive and has been going up at a rate higher than general inflation for years.

[Anonymous]

In MoCo private schools have AC in gyms. MCPS doesn’t.

Teacher salaries are definitely NOT the reason for TikTok increases. Teachers are paid way under public rates with at best 4% increases per year

[Anonymous]

Heads of school can make more than $500k

[Anonymous]

Many pupils do not pay sticker price either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many pupils do not pay sticker price either.

This. You are subsidizing not only athletes, as a PP noted, but other students who don't pay full fare. And this includes more than their tuition; they also don't pay for school trips, etc.

[Anonymous]

HOS makes a lot, but would cutting 100K off the top of his/her salary really make much of a difference for many private schools? There's also facilities and maintenance, marketing, travel to conferences, athletes/teams transportation and weekend transport (buses and shuttles), and many families receive aid. So do faculty children. Operating costs don't remain flat. Even teacher salaries go up year to year. And they need to maintain a healthy endowment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HOS makes a lot, but would cutting 100K off the top of his/her salary really make much of a difference for many private schools? There's also facilities and maintenance, marketing, travel to conferences, athletes/teams transportation and weekend transport (buses and shuttles), and many families receive aid. So do faculty children. Operating costs don't remain flat. Even teacher salaries go up year to year. And they need to maintain a healthy endowment.

Why? What is this money ever used for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HOS makes a lot, but would cutting 100K off the top of his/her salary really make much of a difference for many private schools? There's also facilities and maintenance, marketing, travel to conferences, athletes/teams transportation and weekend transport (buses and shuttles), and many families receive aid. So do faculty children. Operating costs don't remain flat. Even teacher salaries go up year to year. And they need to maintain a healthy endowment.

Why? What is this money ever used for?

Ask SSFS.

[Anonymous]

Administration has grown dramatically in the last two decades, both in terms of number of administrators and administrator salaries. You can look this up for any non-religious private school, IRS form 990.