Is the $40,000/year private school ceiling just up ahead in the D.C. area? D.C. to join NY party?

[Anonymous]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/nyregion/scraping-the-40000-ceiling-at-new-york-city-private-schools.html

[Anonymous]

$40K? We're already there very soon.

A trustee at a top girls' school told me that tuition there is projected to hit $50K inside of TEN years. Supposedly it's mostly going to be due to normal employee cost of living increases that are, of course, justifiable. But $50K is madness and we're opting out.

These schools are set on a course to include only the very rich and the poorest. No middle class professionals because of all those full-tuition payers who bitterly complain about them and want them disqualified from adjusted tuition.

[Anonymous]

We can barely swing $30,000/year. If tuition goes up to $50,000 or even $40,000, we simply won't be able to do it anymore.

[Anonymous]

That's absolutly assinine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's absolutly assinine.

Sp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can barely swing $30,000/year. If tuition goes up to $50,000 or even $40,000, we simply won't be able to do it anymore.

Get settled on a good public school track sooner rather than later b/c this isn't an IF situation, it is a matter of WHEN. This is why so many well-educated, professional DC area parents are opting out of private. The numbers have become unjustifiable. Private has become something for the very wealthy, the very poor and the child with special needs that cannot be addressed well in a public school.

Forget keeping up with the Joneses, save your money for college and let the Joneses go bankrupt paying $40 grand for 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Look, at that price, if you have three kids and you absolutely want to bypass DCPS, you could hire a tutor (governess) and home school three kids, with sports music and art thrown in for less money.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean that market forces echoed on these pages will drive many area private schools out of businees? Are we moving from realestate and soon entering the age of the great big bursting educational bubble?

[Anonymous]

I wonder how many beneficiaries (alumni) of this $40,000+/yr K through 12 education will have no school to associate with by their 25th or 50th class reunions? A number of area D.C. private schools will be pushing up diasies in the educational graveyards by then? A waste.

[Anonymous]

Have you heard of the new Khan Academy? This new area entrant is free with 24/7 on demand educational service for millions of students. The teacher:student ratio is an unbelievable ... 1:1.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Those increases of "only" 3-4% start getting big as the base number gets bigger. It seems like we just cracked 60K for two kids, and we're already getting damned close to 70K for next year (in part because of transitions to middle and upper school). It's insanity...but hard to get off the path at this point.

[Anonymous]

Please, in this area there will always be people with huge incomes fighting for spots at some of these schools, no matter the cost. The salaries of some lobbyists and lawyers in this area are enormous. The schools won't close, they will just as PP said become schools only for the very rich and the families with low enough incomes to receive financial aid. Its kind of getting to be that way now and it will only get more pronounced. This is why Deal is getting so overcrowded.

[Anonymous]

Another dynamic will also happen. We have two kids and are paying full freight. We also throw in another 8k for the capital fund and figure another 5k with auction stuff. I know we aren't the only family that pays full and also kicks in extra but...if tuition keeps on going up..something will give and that will first be the extras and then will be school. I already have heard people say this..sad because I rather give big on the extra..there is a tax benefit that allows me to give more

[Anonymous]

Agree. We are skipping the auctions this year because it's just too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please, in this area there will always be people with huge incomes fighting for spots at some of these schools, no matter the cost. The salaries of some lobbyists and lawyers in this area are enormous. The schools won't close, they will just as PP said become schools only for the very rich and the families with low enough incomes to receive financial aid. Its kind of getting to be that way now and it will only get more pronounced. This is why Deal is getting so overcrowded.

Frankly, if these schools were more efficient with lower tuition, many more kids would be applying from upper middle class families (actually, that would be families still in the top 25% perhaps), making these schools far more competitive than they already are. The super rich actually do not benefit in that scenarios. More competition for their kids.