How do people afford tuition that will only continue to go up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Income is fine at $400k combined salary but we have 3 kids. 2 have special needs and will require small class sizes. All kids did public but now with middle and high school approaching, we think it’s time to move 1-2 kids over to private. Income is enough to not qualify for aid yet 2 tuitions of 40k or so, feels constraining. We don’t typically take lavish trips but wondering how others see this, finance it?

This same question could be asked 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Certainly at the top privates, the answer is the same.

[Anonymous]

We’re around $600k with 2 in private. We cut back a bit on other areas where we were spending our discretionary income, like shopping. I used to spend too much on clothes, bags, and jewelry. So we do less of that now. And we probably drive less expensive cars than we would if the kids were in public. But we are still able to fully fund retirement and college savings, take trips, etc.

[Anonymous]

You save. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Income is fine at $400k combined salary but we have 3 kids. 2 have special needs and will require small class sizes. All kids did public but now with middle and high school approaching, we think it’s time to move 1-2 kids over to private. Income is enough to not qualify for aid yet 2 tuitions of 40k or so, feels constraining. We don’t typically take lavish trips but wondering how others see this, finance it?

You finance it by working and not spending. It’s like when my kids were in daycare and I would hand my entire take home salary over to the daycare provider. Now both of your salaries will be handed over, and you live off of whatever little you’ve managed to save.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Income is fine at $400k combined salary but we have 3 kids. 2 have special needs and will require small class sizes. All kids did public but now with middle and high school approaching, we think it’s time to move 1-2 kids over to private. Income is enough to not qualify for aid yet 2 tuitions of 40k or so, feels constraining. We don’t typically take lavish trips but wondering how others see this, finance it?

You finance it by working and not spending. It’s like when my kids were in daycare and I would hand my entire take home salary over to the daycare provider. Now both of your salaries will be handed over, and you live off of whatever little you’ve managed to save.

Having special needs kids comes with a whole other set of expenses so just cutting back spending may not be possible for this family. To the PPP, have you looked into whether you can get the public system to pay for private? With special needs sometimes you can do that if you can demonstrate that they need something
public isn’t providing. Ask on special needs board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boards base the hikes on investment returns. It’s assumed that you are paying tuition out of investment returns which last year were high (over 10-20%). If you are paying out of income, tuition isn’t set for you.

That’s been my experience anyway and when I started seeing it that way, the whole thing lost value to me, but that’s how the decisions are made and that’s nothing new.

This is completely false, in my experience. I’m on the board of a private school that you have heard of if you live in the DC area. The biggest expense, by far, for independent schools is teacher salaries. These schools must have high quality teachers. This drives everything and there is a growing teacher shortage so therefore an upward pressure on salaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boards base the hikes on investment returns. It’s assumed that you are paying tuition out of investment returns which last year were high (over 10-20%). If you are paying out of income, tuition isn’t set for you.

That’s been my experience anyway and when I started seeing it that way, the whole thing lost value to me, but that’s how the decisions are made and that’s nothing new.

This is completely false, in my experience. I’m on the board of a private school that you have heard of if you live in the DC area. The biggest expense, by far, for independent schools is teacher salaries. These schools must have high quality teachers. This drives everything and there is a growing teacher shortage so therefore an upward pressure on salaries.

Trustee and this PP sounds like they were sitting in on our last Board meeting. 100% agree.

[Anonymous]

Gotta love the wisdom of parents who pay 25% more for a 3% increase in education over 4 years x 2. OP, look at the statistics for public schools vs. private college acceptance rates in 2023 and do the math not the emotions.

[Anonymous]

This is a weird question. Prices always go up for most products and services so you just evaluate whether the value you receive is worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the wisdom of parents who pay 25% more for a 3% increase in education over 4 years x 2. OP, look at the statistics for public schools vs. private college acceptance rates in 2023 and do the math not the emotions.

Weird for you to care how other people spend their money. Posting here suggests you are interested in private school.

[Anonymous]

When we made the decision to move our kid from public to private, we made a spreadsheet estimating 3-5% tuition increases to estimate how much we would need to save to afford 6-12.
It's a good exercise. Don't send your kids to private unless you are comfortable with the math.

It gave us realistic savings targets and we planned ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the wisdom of parents who pay 25% more for a 3% increase in education over 4 years x 2. OP, look at the statistics for public schools vs. private college acceptance rates in 2023 and do the math not the emotions.

A Rolls Royce and a Kia can both drive you to the same destination, but one is going to be a lot nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Income is fine at $400k combined salary but we have 3 kids. 2 have special needs and will require small class sizes. All kids did public but now with middle and high school approaching, we think it’s time to move 1-2 kids over to private. Income is enough to not qualify for aid yet 2 tuitions of 40k or so, feels constraining. We don’t typically take lavish trips but wondering how others see this, finance it?

400k in this area is definitely middle class. Most would take advantage of the publics. I'd move to a Whitman cluster in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Income is fine at $400k combined salary but we have 3 kids. 2 have special needs and will require small class sizes. All kids did public but now with middle and high school approaching, we think it’s time to move 1-2 kids over to private. Income is enough to not qualify for aid yet 2 tuitions of 40k or so, feels constraining. We don’t typically take lavish trips but wondering how others see this, finance it?

if you go private it’s your main investment. Most people in your income bracket don’t. They buy a 2 million dollar house in the burbs and educate using public schools. You can sell the house but you never get tuition dollars back.

400k isn’t wealthy enough in dc to go private and really do much of anything else. If you bought a house 15 years ago then disregard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta love the wisdom of parents who pay 25% more for a 3% increase in education over 4 years x 2. OP, look at the statistics for public schools vs. private college acceptance rates in 2023 and do the math not the emotions.

We don’t do it for college acceptance. My kids will be studying in a different country for university.

We do it because we want smarter, better educated kids, more involved teachers and a student population that sets the standard high.