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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]While there is clearly a wide range of incomes, [b]I would guess that the typical non-financial aid family at one of the selective private schools earns at least $3-400k/year[/b].  So a 3% COLA is $9-12k - plenty to cover an addition $1-2k for tuition.  Obviously families making half of that will have a  harder time if they don't get financial aid, but there are very few families in that income range. Until there are more slots than applicants, there will be plenty of families lining up to pay tuition.  [/quote]

For the typical family earning this amount, paying tuition for two is tough as is.  If we didn't have a $700K mortgage (then again, I'm not sure where we'd live- definitely not anywhere near our private) or save for retirement or college, we could swing these increases.  As it stands, we're being priced out and are considering parochial or public.  DH hasn't had a raise in over 3 years.  The COLAs I've received are insubstantial.  We just can't keep doing this.

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Before anyone attacks the above scenarios for their high incomes, expensive houses, or difficulty in making enviable choices we should remember that these type of families are the bread and butter of the independent school movement.   We all know families that can easily afford the recent tuition increases and still afford the annual ski vacation to St Moritz.  That isn't the point.  [b]Independent school business models face the challenge of a smaller and smaller community of families who can afford their services, [/b]and the competition of improving publics/charters that bring their value proposition into greater focus/question.  If I were running an independent school, the population that I would focus most intensely on would be the upper middle class.  Not that the rich families and financial aid students matter less - it is just that the model is designed to naturally take care of these groups, whereas the full-fee paying, two working professional parent families seem to be stretched to the limit and without them the schools will become hollowed out.[/quote]

Nope as wealth concentrates at the top and in cities, they will have more super wealthy families to choose from. They are loosing *their* middle class (people who make 200,000ish ) but the top teir earners in this area are doing fine (hence house prices) and those will become more and more of thier bread and butter.  [/quote]

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