Where is the fat in private schools?

[Anonymous]

Privates in DMV have unbelievable numbers of administrative staff. No wonder tuition is so high. You don’t need all these development, communication, head of middle school people. It’s crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Privates in DMV have unbelievable numbers of administrative staff. No wonder tuition is so high. You don’t need all these development, communication, head of middle school people. It’s crazy.

If the development team is bringing in substantially more money than the expense of their salaries- or even a dollar more- then I don’t see a problem. I’m not sure everything that a communication team does and what they get paid but people expect a ton of emails, a social media presence, and whatever else the communication team does. I’m not arguing in favor of every administrative position. I’m sure you could convince me that some of them are unnecessary but I think it’s misguided to think they don’t have a role in creating a high functioning school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you compare to Catholic schools that charge and actually operate on ~15K/student, you realize that the fat is in the facilities and admin pay. Catholics school buildings are usually owned by the parish, so that is “free” to them. They’re not otherwise subsidized to the extent people think they are. For the most part they make do with less.

It's not easy to tell how the funding works for Catholic schools because churches get a lot of privacy, but for sure you can't just compare tuition rates and pretend that's spending.

They often also utilize the wildly underpaid labor of priests and nuns and often underpay non clergy employees as well... it's just not comparable financially

[Anonymous]

1. sports
2. administration
3. financial aid/scholarships
3. marketing. Think of all the money that goes into promoting a private school, plus all the extras, like catering open houses and accepted student nights, sending swag boxes to accepted students, etc. Teachers in publics are paying out of pocket for school supplies and decorating their classroom. That's probably not happening at the Sidwells of the world.

[Anonymous]

The annual financial reports are publicly available. I just looked up our school and about 65% is faculty salaries and benefits, 12% is facilities, 10% goes towards growing the endowment. Tuition only covers about 80% of operating budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. sports
2. administration
3. financial aid/scholarships
3. marketing. Think of all the money that goes into promoting a private school, plus all the extras, like catering open houses and accepted student nights, sending swag boxes to accepted students, etc. Teachers in publics are paying out of pocket for school supplies and decorating their classroom. That's probably not happening at the Sidwells of the world.

But are the teachers showing up before and leaving after all of these administrators?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. sports
2. administration
3. financial aid/scholarships
3. marketing. Think of all the money that goes into promoting a private school, plus all the extras, like catering open houses and accepted student nights, sending swag boxes to accepted students, etc. Teachers in publics are paying out of pocket for school supplies and decorating their classroom. That's probably not happening at the Sidwells of the world.

But are the teachers showing up before and leaving after all of these administrators?

Yes, usually they are. Or if not, they are at home spending many more hours planning and grading than most of these admin spend working outside of school hours.

I'm a teacher with 20 years of experience in public schools. Over the years, I've watched the admin team grow to a bloated, crazy lineup of people with jobs that mostly involve thinking up busy work involving whatever trendy new buzzwords are current and insisting that teachers follow these initiatives and complete tasks that are then forgotten as they move on to the next hot trend. In short, the majority of admin spend their time thinking up ways to justify their jobs.

You could cut out many of these roles and schools would function more efficiently, with happier and less stressed teachers who are then allowed to just focus on teaching. And then raise teacher salaries to attract the most qualified and skilled teachers.

But that won't ever happen. Those with the pretend jobs that admin think up for their friends will never go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Privates in DMV have unbelievable numbers of administrative staff. No wonder tuition is so high. You don’t need all these development, communication, head of middle school people. It’s crazy.

If the development team is bringing in substantially more money than the expense of their salaries- or even a dollar more- then I don’t see a problem. I’m not sure everything that a communication team does and what they get paid but people expect a ton of emails, a social media presence, and whatever else the communication team does. I’m not arguing in favor of every administrative position. I’m sure you could convince me that some of them are unnecessary but I think it’s misguided to think they don’t have a role in creating a high functioning school.

“People expect”

Families expect a certain level of service, a certain look to the school, a certain sense of luxury, prestige, and exclusivity. Those things cost money above and beyond the costs of a good education.

[Anonymous]

Things are literally only worth what people are willing to pay. No fat. Simple economics.

[Anonymous]

Obviously financial aid is the easiest fat to cut. Sports teams would suffer at some schools in some sports. But the rest of the school could operate fairly similarly. The reduction, though, wouldn’t be that much. Maybe 10% off the sticker price.

[Anonymous]

But are the teachers showing up before and leaving after all of these administrators?

Yes, usually they are. Or if not, they are at home spending many more hours planning and grading than most of these admin spend working outside of school hours.

I'm a teacher with 20 years of experience in public schools. Over the years, I've watched the admin team grow to a bloated, crazy lineup of people with jobs that mostly involve thinking up busy work involving whatever trendy new buzzwords are current and insisting that teachers follow these initiatives and complete tasks that are then forgotten as they move on to the next hot trend. In short, the majority of admin spend their time thinking up ways to justify their jobs.

You could cut out many of these roles and schools would function more efficiently, with happier and less stressed teachers who are then allowed to just focus on teaching. And then raise teacher salaries to attract the most qualified and skilled teachers.

But that won't ever happen. Those with the pretend jobs that admin think up for their friends will never go away.



Teacher with 30 years of experience in private schools - this is exactly my experience. Such a shame.

[Anonymous]

I obviously don't know how to use the "quote" function, I meant to agree with the teacher with 20 years of experience in public schools, my comment is at the bottom ^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The annual financial reports are publicly available. I just looked up our school and about 65% is faculty salaries and benefits, 12% is facilities, 10% goes towards growing the endowment. Tuition only covers about 80% of operating budget.

What about FA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously financial aid is the easiest fat to cut. Sports teams would suffer at some schools in some sports. But the rest of the school could operate fairly similarly. The reduction, though, wouldn’t be that much. Maybe 10% off the sticker price.

Suffer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you compare to Catholic schools that charge and actually operate on ~15K/student, you realize that the fat is in the facilities and admin pay. Catholics school buildings are usually owned by the parish, so that is “free” to them. They’re not otherwise subsidized to the extent people think they are. For the most part they make do with less.

It's not easy to tell how the funding works for Catholic schools because churches get a lot of privacy, but for sure you can't just compare tuition rates and pretend that's spending.

They often also utilize the wildly underpaid labor of priests and nuns and often underpay non clergy employees as well... it's just not comparable financially

The few (Arlington Diocese)!Catholic schools we have visited do not have any nuns (but did a long time ago) and do not have clergy teaching anything other than the religion classes. There must be some somewhere, but not at any Catholic ES near us.