Is your private having another tuition increase?
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Anonymous
PP, you seam pretty smug . It reminds me of a joke heard in Moscow before the Ukraine issues made their economy tank: " I see we have the same tie, how much did you pay for it ?" Answer : $500 " You fool, I got mine for $1,000 " |
Anonymous
$300k+ HHI here, so no prospect of financial aid. We've loved our independent school, which our kids have been attending for 7 years. The tuition increase this year, on top of the increased cost of moving from a lower division to a higher division, means the price has ticked up enough to make it financially irresponsible for us to keep the kids there, especially with college on the horizon. So we're heading to our local public this fall--and three days after the decision was made, I am feeling relief more than anything else. Maybe a little excitement about spending a tiny bit of the 'saved' money on a summer vacation  .
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Anonymous
I feel the same way, it feels irresponsible to spend 40-50k on high school. Our public is a great option and I am having a hard time significantly better outcomes for private kids over puble. We have not come to the same conclusion as you but probably will. What are your children thinking? |
Anonymous
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I'm sure it's not lost on everyone, but increasing cost happens in Public schools too. So I was curious to look at the numbers for Alexandria City Schools where we live. (my son goes to private) Obviously I can't look at tuition cost for increases, instead I looked at the Actual Operating Budget year over year from 2001 through 2015 (2014 and 2015 numbers are Final, not Actual yet). The numbers were interesting, even including tough years 2010 and 2011 (which was due to the recession beginning in 2008) the average is almost 5% increase a year.
What does that tell me? The cost of education everywhere is increasing. Year Total Operating Budget % Change 2001 $122,210,947 2002 $128,791,707 5.38% 2003 $135,194,040 4.97% 2004 $142,534,773 5.43% 2005 $152,144,178 6.74% 2006 $163,601,110 7.53% 2007 $181,000,000 10.63% 2008 $184,860,000 2.13% 2009 $193,612,000 4.73% 2010 $191,044,000 -1.33% 2011 $193,737,000 1.41% 2012 $204,930,000 5.78% 2013 $215,330,000 5.07% 2014 $227,334,000 5.57% 2015 $235,292,599 3.50% |
Anonymous
For this to be more helpful , you would need to normalize it to a per student calculation. Private school have the ability to tightly control the growth in students. Publics do not have this same luxury. |
Anonymous
| Sometimes tuition rises because enrollment is declining. The same fixed costs need to be spread over a smaller base. |
Anonymous
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One of the problems here is that most of the top schools have a 'policy' of trying to pay their folks in the top decile.
But the reality, by definition, is if all are in 'the top 10%' then all are 'average' For kicks I read the moco teachers contracts. Sticker Salaries are 'low'.....but then you add in a masters, and get X more, coach a team, Y, more, defined benefit pension plan, summer off, etc. Whats driving the hikes is really comp.......and tons of more administrators and specialists both public and private. |
Anonymous
| Actually in most areas of the country public school teachers are paid more than private and have better benefits unless a teacher is getting tuition remission for his/her children. There are more opportunities for training and getting into administration in public as well. |
Anonymous
| We have kids in public and private -- they have different needs. They have all gotten very good educations (oldest from public now at an Ivy for those who care about these things -- we did not go to those schools, so we are not too wed to them). The primary difference I see in private is the personalization that occurs: the myriad ways in which teachers know students (most public school coaches do not teach academic courses), the amount of writing students are required to do because teachers have fewer students and, thus, are able to grade more papers, and the less chaotic environment, which I attribute almost entirely to size. Our kids in private (which we have done only for middle and high) need less chaos and more practice writing than our kids in public. But whether it is worth the money is really an individual decision based on the needs of individual kids. So we were willing -- at MS and HS to make different decisions for different kids. Our public school kids do not resent our private school ones (in fact our oldest told us he did not think his public school would be a good fit for one of his younger siblings). We have been clear that we are going to be good advocates for their getting the best education for them, regardless of where they are. All this is to say, it would not have been worth it for our two kids who went to public, as that environment served them very well, but it was absolutely worth it for our slightly less extroverted but bright and sporty youngest child. |
Anonymous
It doesn't matter if you're making $400K as a lawyer/lobbyist or $4M in private equity, your ability to shrug off a couple thousand dollars in private school tuition increases is the same. NYC also has a lot more very expensive schools to match their larger population. The panic about private school tuition at places like SFS, GDS, STA, NCS is a psychological reaction. It doesn't have an economic basis. Since nearly everyone's child would do just as well going to Wilson, at some point you just have to admit to yourself that it is a luxury, not a necessity. And, we all have different levels of need/tolerance for conspicuous consumption. |
Anonymous
| I don't know about shrugging off increases at $400K. Two kids at 35/yr is a lot of money. We make $300K and have a hard time making the numbers work for two kids. We could make it work but only by not saving enough for college and retirement. |
Anonymous
Agree. We make $275 and it is not possible to save for retirement, much less college, if we sent our kids to private. |
Anonymous
Yep. It gets increasingly tight and becomes increasingly unsustainable when looking at at number of years it's required along with college savings, etc. I'd argue that it's not really fiscally justifiable at this HHI unless you have a child with special needs or who wouldn't manage in public for some reason. |
Anonymous
Yes, as in all of the government employees. There are some very interesting people, well educated, with great kids but family income is $150k or so. They dig into retirement assets, family money to pay for private. No way is it coming from current income. |
Anonymous
Yes, but the problem is as the parents are often business people or lawyers, it changes the dynamic in the classroom. The offspring of Foreign Service officers and NIH scientists are oft times more intellectual, better able to contribute something unique to class discussion. It is a shame the independent schools have lost that group of kids. They are now in MCPS, at Wilson or in DC charters. |