This comment makes zero sense. |
I get it from a school budget perspective. Full pay families have to subsidize the FA families. Many are also donating on top of that. |
That has nothing to do with saying that families looking for financial aid aren’t interested in supporting the school or the community. An absurd comment. |
A prior poster here with about 300k income said a 20% tuition discount was not big enough. The best way I know of measuring support to a school is in dollars. |
Time is money. All the schools DC has attended have been extremely appreciative of the parent volunteers that make dozens of things possible, from teacher appreciation events to early-years holiday room parties to the parents who organize meals for the HS students staying at rehearsal until 8 pm for the play. |
| Also, anyone making $300k and looking down on the offer of a 20% discount as not enough can gtfo. |
That happens everywhere, including public schools. Not the same as financial support but also appreciated. |
Financial support also happens everywhere, including publics, even if your kid doesn’t go to the local public. Source: the fliers stuck in my door by students asking for donations or selling products in support of the local (Fairfax) public ES, MS, and HS drama departments, bands, and every individual sport under the sun. Some of which I do give money to, along with my kid’s private school. |
Kids fundraising is not relevant at all here. |
Sure it is. Who do you think disproportionately contributes? Other parents. You’ve concocted some weird view where only full pay families can support the school through financial contributions and now you can’t get out of it. |
The kids are fundraising for their hobbies at the school: some music group, sports team, or whatever rather than paying the normal activities fees. It is because the parents are cheap and are crowdsourcing their kid’s extracurricular costs. It is not contributing to the school at all. There is a big difference. Private schools have a development office where $10-20M of the annual budget comes from donors. Public schools have bake sales to raise money for the dance troop. This is instead of the parents just paying activities fees. Or fundraising for a class trip, rather than just charging the parents the cost of the trip. There is no comparison. |
| Whenever kids are fundraising for something, it is really for the parents to get out of fees or minimize their fees. |
On that income yuo can afford full pay. That's crazy you expect that much help. |
So you admit that the parents are covering costs that other schools would just charge for. So they are contributing financially to the school, just in a different form. Whether it is on the same scale is irrelevant. We are talking about how families contribute to a school, both financially and non-financially. You keep throwing out red herrings. Additionally, many families who receive FA are only receiving partial amounts and still donate when the asks start to come in. None of your points make sense. |
I’m not the pp, and their comment was certainly ungrateful, but let’s do the math. Assume both parents work. $300k is about $160k after taxes. Let’s say a $5k mortgage escrow payment (including taxes and insurance). Now we’re at $100k. Let’s say they have 2 kids. Now we’re at about $8k a month for food, clothes, car/gas/insurance, utilities, etc. it gets very very tight, and not enough for one $35k a year private school, let alone 2. $300k sounds like a lot, and in Iowa it is, but with 2 working parents in the dc area… |