How is financial aid funded?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition never covers financial aid.

Let's say a school has an annual budget of $10 million. The school will have several revenue streams to get to that $10 million - tuition, summer camps, facility rentals, fundraising. Some schools may have an endowment that throws off income as well.

Tuition is the largest income stream, but it would never cover the full budget, hence the other income streams.

Most financial aid is going to be covered by fundraising and income from an endowment.

That's a really crude and simple breakdown of the overall budget picture.

- Former board member of a local independent school

What you meant was: Tuition never fully covers financial aid. Right?

So, tuition covers some of the financial aid?

PP here - if you view money as being fungible, then you could argue that some tuition covers some financial aid, but that's not generally how schools view it.

It would be the rare school where full pay families are actually covering the full cost of the education (I've been involved with multiple schools and never saw tuition covering the full cost per child). In other words, if you're paying full freight, you're not subsidizing the family paying 60% of the sticker price. Your tuition may cover 90% of the actual cost for your child. So the extra 10% for you and the extra 40% for the other family have to come from other revenue streams as I outlined above. I think there are some full pay families (and others) who think the full pay families are, from their tuition alone, helping to pay for other students. That's generally not true.

Again, this is all on a really superficial level and doesn't get into other aspects of a budget that need to be addressed by the school.

Can you really say with a straight face that the 50k that schools are charging doesn't cover the cost of that child's education? The facilities at most schools charging that much are nice, but not that nice and the classes are small, but not that small

Tuition doesn’t cover the full cost of educating each child at any educational institution. That’s what an endowment is for. [/quote]


Definitely not true at DC area privates. Many are far too new to the scene to have significant endowments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition never covers financial aid.

Let's say a school has an annual budget of $10 million. The school will have several revenue streams to get to that $10 million - tuition, summer camps, facility rentals, fundraising. Some schools may have an endowment that throws off income as well.

Tuition is the largest income stream, but it would never cover the full budget, hence the other income streams.

Most financial aid is going to be covered by fundraising and income from an endowment.

That's a really crude and simple breakdown of the overall budget picture.

- Former board member of a local independent school

What you meant was: Tuition never fully covers financial aid. Right?

So, tuition covers some of the financial aid?

PP here - if you view money as being fungible, then you could argue that some tuition covers some financial aid, but that's not generally how schools view it.

It would be the rare school where full pay families are actually covering the full cost of the education (I've been involved with multiple schools and never saw tuition covering the full cost per child). In other words, if you're paying full freight, you're not subsidizing the family paying 60% of the sticker price. Your tuition may cover 90% of the actual cost for your child. So the extra 10% for you and the extra 40% for the other family have to come from other revenue streams as I outlined above. I think there are some full pay families (and others) who think the full pay families are, from their tuition alone, helping to pay for other students. That's generally not true.

Again, this is all on a really superficial level and doesn't get into other aspects of a budget that need to be addressed by the school.

Can you really say with a straight face that the 50k that schools are charging doesn't cover the cost of that child's education? The facilities at most schools charging that much are nice, but not that nice and the classes are small, but not that small

Never underestimate the cost of providing robust benefits to faculty and staff to ensure retention.

That's hilarious! I can tell you from my firsthand experience that the "benefits " at the Big Three school where I taught were anything but "robust." "Anemic" is more like it.

The system assumes that teachers' living expenses are subsidized by their high-earning spouses and/or trust funds.

[Anonymous]

It is insulting to the full pay families in these $50K+ a year schools that a full tuition can't cover the cost of their child. If you want to get donations from them, be candid. Twisting the facts will not get more donations. Trying to make full pay families feel guilty that they get 10% FA will backfire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is insulting to the full pay families in these $50K+ a year schools that a full tuition can't cover the cost of their child. If you want to get donations from them, be candid. Twisting the facts will not get more donations. Trying to make full pay families feel guilty that they get 10% FA will backfire.

+1 it is obvious we are being lied to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition income at our k8 covers about 80% of the schools operating costs. Those costs include FA but also overhead like utilities, obviously teacher and staff salaries, field trips, equipment, maintenance, etc, and of course FA. Unless a donor earmarks money for a specific purpose, it all goes into the same pot.

For those folks who absolutely can’t stand the idea of their money going to FA for anyone less “worthy” in their eyes than the 4-generation, 12-member household living in a 1-bedroom apartment on food stamps, you can always earmark your donation to go to a specific thing other than the general fund.

People are not arguing whether the total tuition money covers the total school operating cost. Of course, it doesn't, and that's why schools have other income sources The argument here is whether a full pay tuition covers a student's cost, and the answer is yes. Families receiving FA should not feel ashamed - if the school gives it to you, you deserve it. But twisting the truth is a different thing.

Because you can’t separate the direct cost of your child’s education from the additional indirect costs of the school. If you divide the cost to run the school for a year by the number of students in the school, there’s your actual average cost of educating each student. And tuition doesn’t cover that whole cost.

Nonsense. The cost to educate one child does not include the financial aid budget for the whole school, or other budget items that are completely irrelevant to that one child.

+1.

Every other thing at the school that is NOT the financial aid budget is relevant to that one child though. And your tuition still doesn't cover all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is insulting to the full pay families in these $50K+ a year schools that a full tuition can't cover the cost of their child. If you want to get donations from them, be candid. Twisting the facts will not get more donations. Trying to make full pay families feel guilty that they get 10% FA will backfire.

How is that insulting? The things the schools are providing cost a lot of money. The amount of money you pay does not cover the full cost of educating your child. The schools don't make you feel guilty that the fundraising and other sources close that gap. You should not feel guilty. I feel grateful and also hate the system and that it all costs so much. Why choose to see it negatively?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition income at our k8 covers about 80% of the schools operating costs. Those costs include FA but also overhead like utilities, obviously teacher and staff salaries, field trips, equipment, maintenance, etc, and of course FA. Unless a donor earmarks money for a specific purpose, it all goes into the same pot.

For those folks who absolutely can’t stand the idea of their money going to FA for anyone less “worthy” in their eyes than the 4-generation, 12-member household living in a 1-bedroom apartment on food stamps, you can always earmark your donation to go to a specific thing other than the general fund.

People are not arguing whether the total tuition money covers the total school operating cost. Of course, it doesn't, and that's why schools have other income sources The argument here is whether a full pay tuition covers a student's cost, and the answer is yes. Families receiving FA should not feel ashamed - if the school gives it to you, you deserve it. But twisting the truth is a different thing.

Because you can’t separate the direct cost of your child’s education from the additional indirect costs of the school. If you divide the cost to run the school for a year by the number of students in the school, there’s your actual average cost of educating each student. And tuition doesn’t cover that whole cost.

Nonsense. The cost to educate one child does not include the financial aid budget for the whole school, or other budget items that are completely irrelevant to that one child.

+1.

Every other thing at the school that is NOT the financial aid budget is relevant to that one child though. And your tuition still doesn't cover all of that.

My tuition isn’t supposed to cover the inflated budget of a large nonprofit. It is supposed to cover the costs to educate one child. It is generally wildly dishonest to say that full pay tuition is not doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition income at our k8 covers about 80% of the schools operating costs. Those costs include FA but also overhead like utilities, obviously teacher and staff salaries, field trips, equipment, maintenance, etc, and of course FA. Unless a donor earmarks money for a specific purpose, it all goes into the same pot.

For those folks who absolutely can’t stand the idea of their money going to FA for anyone less “worthy” in their eyes than the 4-generation, 12-member household living in a 1-bedroom apartment on food stamps, you can always earmark your donation to go to a specific thing other than the general fund.

No one here says families receiving FA are less "worthy" - that's actually your words. But please do not distort the truth.

On other threads there have been plenty of folks clutching their pearls and insisting that if they learned their school gave FA to a family with three kids and an HHI of $350 they’d never give another penny of donations again because the school dared to give FA to a family that doesn’t, in their view, deserve it. That’s what I’m talking about.

Dp: I don't think "worthy"or "deserve" in this sense is the same as need. Some people view their donations to school financial aid funds as charitable donations, so prefer to donate to those in need, not those who could afford it but for whatever reason are given aid. It is a donation philosophy, not a judgment of the recipient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is insulting to the full pay families in these $50K+ a year schools that a full tuition can't cover the cost of their child. If you want to get donations from them, be candid. Twisting the facts will not get more donations. Trying to make full pay families feel guilty that they get 10% FA will backfire.

How is that insulting? The things the schools are providing cost a lot of money. The amount of money you pay does not cover the full cost of educating your child. The schools don't make you feel guilty that the fundraising and other sources close that gap. You should not feel guilty. I feel grateful and also hate the system and that it all costs so much. Why choose to see it negatively?

It is insulting because it is a low-intelligent lie.

[Anonymous]

Attending private school is voluntary. If you don't like how they operate you can choose not to participate. This is very simple. When you do choose to participate you are opting in to a community that you believe is worth the investment.

[Anonymous]

These schools publish detailed financial reports that you are welcome to read. Nobody’s being lied to. If you don’t want a school with a “bloated” budget (funny how FA seems to be the only part the “nonsense!! Buffoonery!!” harrumphing poster cares about) go find one, I guess? Or convince the decision-makers to jettison whatever you think is wasting your money. Have at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the former public school teacher PP. Do you folks who are against FA not understand how awful and how much less well rounded the schools would be if the student body was comprised of only full pay students, or only full pay + impoverished students? Where the poor students would be dressed in drab clothing and it was obvious who was poor, because of their appearance and where they lived? That seems like the only financial aid student that many of you are comfortable with.

It is not reasonable or rational and if you want schools with that profile, go build one. Maybe you will get a lot of takers, but I doubt it. And good luck getting a high quality teaching staff who would want to work with that sort of parent community. Do you know how hard it is to get high quality teachers nowadays?

False premise. No one said they are against financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Financial aid is a blessing to everyone at an independent school. Whether they are recipients or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tuition never covers financial aid.

Let's say a school has an annual budget of $10 million. The school will have several revenue streams to get to that $10 million - tuition, summer camps, facility rentals, fundraising. Some schools may have an endowment that throws off income as well.

Tuition is the largest income stream, but it would never cover the full budget, hence the other income streams.

Most financial aid is going to be covered by fundraising and income from an endowment.

That's a really crude and simple breakdown of the overall budget picture.

- Former board member of a local independent school

What you meant was: Tuition never fully covers financial aid. Right?

So, tuition covers some of the financial aid?

PP here - if you view money as being fungible, then you could argue that some tuition covers some financial aid, but that's not generally how schools view it.

It would be the rare school where full pay families are actually covering the full cost of the education (I've been involved with multiple schools and never saw tuition covering the full cost per child). In other words, if you're paying full freight, you're not subsidizing the family paying 60% of the sticker price. Your tuition may cover 90% of the actual cost for your child. So the extra 10% for you and the extra 40% for the other family have to come from other revenue streams as I outlined above. I think there are some full pay families (and others) who think the full pay families are, from their tuition alone, helping to pay for other students. That's generally not true.

Again, this is all on a really superficial level and doesn't get into other aspects of a budget that need to be addressed by the school.

Can you really say with a straight face that the 50k that schools are charging doesn't cover the cost of that child's education? The facilities at most schools charging that much are nice, but not that nice and the classes are small, but not that small

Do you not understand how much these schools are paying for staffing, for resources and materials, for events, and all the other components that go into what is truly a luxury educational experience for children? I'm a former public school teacher and every time I am in the building at my DC's school, I find myself mentally tallying the costs of the things around me. Classrooms with an endless supply of materials, math manipulatives, special chairs and sensory items provided by the school, expensive art supplies that kids blow through when discovering, a lot of technology, the training and professional development that teachers attend, and on and on. FYI, benefits alone for a faculty member with a family could run $20k per year. On top of their salary. I know that nearly every teacher at DC's school participates in at least $3k worth of professional development annually (they get reimbursed and nearly all take advantage of it every year as they should). The $50k you pay per kid absolutely does not cover the full cost of everything in that school experience.

Schools are not making it up when they say that every single child gets some FA because the true cost of attendance is almost always greater than the tuition cost.

DCPS budget $24k per student. Even if you say staff should be 2:1 compared to DCPS (which most privates aren't), how does one get to tuition not covering but 80% of costs? I'll give you a hint, public schools don't pay $500k+ to head of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Financial aid is a blessing to everyone at an independent school. Whether they are recipients or not.

It's a blessing to those receiving it and a cost to those not receiving it