Is there a market for a cheaper no frills private school

[Anonymous]

Sure it can be done but not in DC or close-in DC. I live in Anne Arundel County and the private schools there are less than $20K and great schools. So if you look in the way outer suburbs, you might find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You could eliminate financial aid b/c at 19K a year, you would still have all kinds of diversity.

Sure, you could have families making a whole 10K less (or 20K less, for two kids) than the families at the 29K school. Great plan! Instant economic diversity, right?

[Anonymous]

A school focused on teaching instead of facilities.


.... I actually found it staggering the amount of resources that must go into these "beautiful" facilities. I'd see other parents on tours "ooing and ahhhing" over some part of the school's "physical plant" and I'd be thinking - "Wow - how much could be saved off these huge tuitions if they didn't spend so much money on competing for the nicest facilities".

ITA, you 2 PPs. Sidwell? Did someone say Sidwell? It's like an arms race out there at the high school level, at least.

I think that the K-12 model is a large part of the problem cited above. St. Pat's, Sheridan, and Norwood have significantly lower tuition than Maret, GDS and Sidwell and St. Albans. Where do the graduates of K-8 Norwood, Sheridan and St. Pat's go?? (meaning, their education was good enough to get them into ....) That's right. Marety, GDS, Sidwell and St. Albans.

Lowell seems to be the outlier with cost of tuition; it's higher. CHDS has lower tuition but I don't know that such a large group of its graduates reliably goes on to Maret, GDS, Sidwell and StA. Maybe someone can chime in.

Point is, those cheaper K-8s are good enough to educate their kids to a level that gets them into $$$$ GDS, for example, while charging $7,000 a year less for 9 years. I personally think the missing piece is the sport complex / Carnegie Hall auditorium / MIT-ready science lab. Those understandably cost a lot and they are spreading the costs down to the 8 year olds, although the 8 year olds aren't ready to take advantage of MIT-ready science labs.

[Anonymous]

It can probably be done in Northern Virginia. And this area is very under-served when it comes to private schools. I send my child into DC due to so few options in Fairfax County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A school focused on teaching instead of facilities.


.... I actually found it staggering the amount of resources that must go into these "beautiful" facilities. I'd see other parents on tours "ooing and ahhhing" over some part of the school's "physical plant" and I'd be thinking - "Wow - how much could be saved off these huge tuitions if they didn't spend so much money on competing for the nicest facilities".

ITA, you 2 PPs. Sidwell? Did someone say Sidwell? It's like an arms race out there at the high school level, at least.

I think that the K-12 model is a large part of the problem cited above. St. Pat's, Sheridan, and Norwood have significantly lower tuition than Maret, GDS and Sidwell and St. Albans. Where do the graduates of K-8 Norwood, Sheridan and St. Pat's go?? (meaning, their education was good enough to get them into ....) That's right. Marety, GDS, Sidwell and St. Albans.

Lowell seems to be the outlier with cost of tuition; it's higher. CHDS has lower tuition but I don't know that such a large group of its graduates reliably goes on to Maret, GDS, Sidwell and StA. Maybe someone can chime in.

Point is, those cheaper K-8s are good enough to educate their kids to a level that gets them into $$$$ GDS, for example, while charging $7,000 a year less for 9 years. I personally think the missing piece is the sport complex / Carnegie Hall auditorium / MIT-ready science lab. Those understandably cost a lot and they are spreading the costs down to the 8 year olds, although the 8 year olds aren't ready to take advantage of MIT-ready science labs.

10:40 here again -

good point PP but I'd say Norwood has put quite a bit of $$$ into facilities as well.

Also - just to be fair - it looks like Maret's tuition levels for the little ones and for middle schoolers are not so much different than some of the K-8 schools you mentioned like Norwood and Sheridan.

But you are correct that Sidwell seems to be an outlier in terms of charging everyone the same price from K-12. GDS is expensive too - but they do give a "small break" to the younger kids (only 3k).

[Anonymous]

My kids are at New Hope in PG County. We find it to have good academics, small classes, very personal staff, etc. It does lack the beautiful buildings, endowment, full range of extra curricular. For less than $10k (including before/after care) we find it to fit our needs perfectly.

[Anonymous]

re: facilities

Sure the new facilities are nice, but in many cases the schools were replacing/upgrading facilities that were 40, 50+ years old. At some point, there are operational savings to investing in more efficient and healthier buildings.

Yes, it might seem like an arms race, but at the same time, there is an investment that is for several generations.

[Anonymous]

cheap, no frills private school = public school in wealthy counties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You could eliminate financial aid b/c at 19K a year, you would still have all kinds of diversity.

Sure, you could have families making a whole 10K less (or 20K less, for two kids) than the families at the 29K school. Great plan! Instant economic diversity, right?

Well, many of the less expensive schools also offer financial aid. If you get a $10K financial aid grant it'll cut half the tuition in a less expensive school as opposed to one third. This could really make a big difference to some middle income families.

Also, $10K less a year for a 12 year education is a savings of about $120K so don't underestimate what the $10K means to some families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:cheap, no frills private school = public school in wealthy counties

Yeah, unfortunately I don't have an extra $200K lying around to afford a home in one of those areas.

Also a no frills private could offer a focus on content without having to spend a ton of classroom time on test prep for the standardized testing. You can also probably get a better student/teacher ratio of less than 30 to 1. Wealthy public schools aren't immune to these things.

[Anonymous]

cheap, no frills private school = public school in wealthy counties

No. The big difference would be in curriculum.

Specifically the frequency and depth of subjects that are not 1. math and 2. reading

[Anonymous]

Can someone help me understand why private school tuition in, say, Greater Atlanta, is 30-40% less than DC, even in the suburbs?

[Anonymous]

very simple...salary range is about 30-40% lower than DC (so its all relative)....take a look at the DC Federal Pay Scale and compare it to Atlanta....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone help me understand why private school tuition in, say, Greater Atlanta, is 30-40% less than DC, even in the suburbs?

I can't answer that but I bet in part it's because people can afford it here and will pay it.

The cost of living is also higher here and I would imagine that housing is probably about 30% higher as well. I'm speculating though and don't have sources to back this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone help me understand why private school tuition in, say, Greater Atlanta, is 30-40% less than DC, even in the suburbs?

and who would want to live in Atlanta? that's the answer. supply and demand.