Private school teacher salaries and tuition breaks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Regrading priority in the admissions process, it is my understanding that it depends on the school.

From reading posts this year as well as chatting with friends, I believe Maret has a strong priority for children of teachers/staff - but I do not believe that Sidwell offers that same priority.

But Sidwell offers a great deal on tuition remission...

[Anonymous]

no discount/reciprocity at our brother school but our school will not factor your salary into the financial aide forms. hubby makes200k+ so we have no discount for our daughters at all. love teaching though... discount was not my motivation in the profession. salary wise I will be honest in saying I make 63k a year. Have been teaching 12+ year plus 2 years sabbatical when children respectively born.

[Anonymous]

At my current child’s school a teacher just retired. She had children attend the school. Based on the school’s teacher remission policy she has received over 1.2 million dollars of free tuition during her tenure (14 years, multiple children). That is income lost to the school and an unfair benefit for teachers who have children. It’s ridiculous. The compensation package should not be so biased.

[Anonymous]

Don't knowto which school the PP refers, but based on the teacher's child discount, and what I could be earning in a public school as an experienced teacher, it's like I'm paying 35,000/year tuition per child. While other parents enjoy school events and quietly revel in their child's work as a family, the teacher spends the event dutifully focused on all the other children.

It is an unfair benefit with regard to other teachers not receiving it, yes, but possibly a fair distribution of financial aid which is where the discount money comes from. I'd like to believe my child is a worthwhile addition to the school community despite our HH income being well under half that of most of the other families at the school ( & easily 1/5 of many).

Not complaining, I love my job, and I thoroughly enjoy the children I work with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't knowto which school the PP refers, but based on the teacher's child discount, and what I could be earning in a public school as an experienced teacher, it's like I'm paying 35,000/year tuition per child. While other parents enjoy school events and quietly revel in their child's work as a family, the teacher spends the event dutifully focused on all the other children.

It is an unfair benefit with regard to other teachers not receiving it, yes, but possibly a fair distribution of financial aid which is where the discount money comes from. I'd like to believe my child is a worthwhile addition to the school community despite our HH income being well under half that of most of the other families at the school ( & easily 1/5 of many).

Not complaining, I love my job, and I thoroughly enjoy the children I work with.

I am a private school teacher, and I find the above comment specious. No one is forcing you to teach in a private school; you could have taught in a oublic school if you wanted. Obviously, you made the choice to go private, so to complain about your lower salary is a bit silly. It is definitely NOT like you are paying extra tuition because you could be earning more in a public school--that is just faulty logic, plain and simple.

My current school doesn't offer tuition remission but my previous one did (in a different city), and even though I took advantage of it, I still always thought it was unfair to other teachers who didn't have children. It is a benefit offered to some teachers and not others, and that is not fair.

[Anonymous]

PP, I agreed with you! It is not offered to all teachers, thus unfair in a way. Not unfair as quite limited fin aid in many cases, though.

[Anonymous]

Well, it is offered to all teachers, but only advantageous to some...

[Anonymous]

17:35 PP here - Actually tuition remission comes out of a different pool of money than financial aid. The financial aid offering each year is fairly fixed and available to everyone. Tuition remission is drawn from a different pool and based on the policy. So, if the school offers half off to all teachers and staff with children enrolled, then they will honor that regardless of how many teacher/staff kids are enrolled. I’ve known teachers to apply for financial aid because the tuition remission doesn’t cover their costs. I don’t object to a teacher receiving financial aid even though I know they typically receive preference over non-teacher kids and there is frequently some number juggling going on (ignoring one of the parent’s salaries). It’s the tuition remission policies that I object to. It’s an endless pot of money based on a policy and has nothing to do with the income of the teacher and his/her spouse or the number of children a teacher has. Look at the 1090s on guidestar – it’s shocking how much is given away as tuition remission. The number frequently matches the financial aid number.

[Anonymous]

Teachers should get tuition remission funding if the school is up for it.

That's a great benefit for teachers and the school. Teachers generally will have children who are either motivated learners or are being motivated by their parents. Their children will have support at home from their parents experience, and therefore will generally do fairly well in school. This isn't always the case, but it is [o]often[/i] the case. The schools know this... so they know that they can accept great students.

Besides... most private school teachers are making in the ditches compared to public school teachers. Should they be punished for taking a job that actually allows them to teach?

[Anonymous]

Some Big 3 teachers have multiple kids in the school. There's little chance they could afford the tuition bill if they only got a small amount of tuition assistance. Just like some kids get more financial aid than others, I think teachers at some schools get more aid than others. I highly doubt though that there's a set % for teachers - - I strongly expect that the way it works is largely based on need (a teacher whose spouse is a commercial real estate mogul would get less aid, if any, than less well-off teachers).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should get tuition remission funding if the school is up for it.

That's a great benefit for teachers and the school. Teachers generally will have children who are either motivated learners or are being motivated by their parents. Their children will have support at home from their parents experience, and therefore will generally do fairly well in school. This isn't always the case, but it is [o]often[/i] the case. The schools know this... so they know that they can accept great students.

Besides... most private school teachers are making in the ditches compared to public school teachers. Should they be punished for taking a job that actually allows them to teach?

But there is still the issue of unfairness to teachers without children.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the real problem here isn't that some teachers are getting a discount but that teachers should be paid more to begin with. Imagine being told that your child could not attend the school where you teach because your family does not have enough money. How would you feel? So many parents expect teachers to be counselors, role models, educators, nurses, child psychologists and more but do not want them to catch a break so that the teacher's child could experience the same great school. I find this disturbing.

[Anonymous]

Sidwell has many faculty/staff children in the school, I am not sure where a prior poster suggests that one school is better than another in this regard.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher at a Big 3 who has heard/witness/first hand experienced this... 1) our salaries are lower but working at a private school has so many advantages I am willing to make 60k v 80k to actually have pleasant coworkers, freedom in course planning, and motivated children. 2) I have 2 students at my big 3, do not get much aide due to husband's salary but truly, it is not fair to offer remission/discount to all teachers when there is a majority of teachers who dont have children and will never be benefitting from that 10k,20k,30k extra per year. Also financially from the schools stand point if there is an equally quaified full pay student they should chose that student... its a business. That being said there are a few two teacher families here that have students at the school. They do get more aid because regardless of working at the school, they qualify for aide and have students who are qualified to be at the school. One reason schools may want faculty kids there is there is less of a risk -- you know atleast one parent is somewhat sane/no crazy ego to deal with/values education.

[Anonymous]

I am a former private school teacher and the school where I taught gave 100% tuition remission to children of faculty. Now, they do 75%.

I did not have children when I taught there but in all honesty never ever felt that it was an unfair "perk." It never even crossed my mind.

Overall, the teachers kids were pretty incredible. They excelled in the classroom, on the sports fields and many were fantastic actors and actresses. All were really nice kids.