Anonymous wrote:Former private school teacher here --- a very good proportion of the kids have parents with "normal" jobs and grandparents paying the tuition. Of course you will find lots of wealthy people, as well, but this is a notable population, too.

I switched from teaching in public to independent last year. I made the switch because what I was seeing as a teacher in the public schools has been horrific. I brought my kids along with me to the new school.

However what school did you work at that you knew the parents finances? I have no clue who makes what, who pays what or who even gets aid. Is this shared in staff meetings?.

To answer OPs question, since I'm on staff I get a 25% discount. We have a combined HHI of around 525k.

We have a HHI income of around 400k. Kids are small and one is in private preschool at the moment, plan to send both to private school within a few years. In our case we’re sending to a Jewish day school, so the HHI is more distributed and it’s less of a rich person thing than it is a cultural one. Hopefully HHI will increase a bit with promotions. Grandparents are well off but not contributing to private school tuition, but will pay for college so that’s one thing less we have to save for. Other posters are right that many people on the “lower” end of HHI have wealthy parents/grandparents that contribute in some way be it with tuition, trust funds, inheritance coming etc.

We have HHI of 250 and send our two kids to Catholic schools. We also still live in our little “starter” home with a teeny little mortgage payment each month. No grandparent help but they absolutely could.

Former private school teacher here --- a very good proportion of the kids have parents with "normal" jobs and grandparents paying the tuition. Of course you will find lots of wealthy people, as well, but this is a notable population, too.

Our decision foe oeibete5foe one of our 2 kids was based on my child's individual needs. He needed in person school and thrives in smaller settings. He is doing excellent in classes that max out with 10 kids.

We make around 750k/yr. However it's variable. We do not feel pinched in the slightest.

HHI IS $320 and we have one in a $50k private (high school - we did public for k-8). Our mortgage is low (bought 20 years ago, almost paid off), so not constraining at all.

I do know that we are the poor at the school. Kids all driving new Jeeps and their parents fancy new cars, and there's me in my 12 year old minivan. Also, I don't get dressed up/made-up for all the on campus events, but also don't care. My child is getting an excellent, in-person education in a small classroom and is happy.

I think it's less about the household income and more about the household net worth. Or the contributions that grandparents are willing to make / inheritances.

In some families, education is the only thing we splash out on.

Our family doesn't yet have kids in private school, though we plan to go that direction soon. But the main factor in that is an educational trust fund my parents set up for my kids. In addition to 529s.

Without that dedicated income source focused on private school we might consider it, but probably not.

We pay $50K for private high school for one kid on $425k.
It is completely doable. He attended public school through 8h grade.

We pay about 27K in tuition. HHI around 400K with bonuses, stock, etc. It's a hit but doable.

In our case, our DS absolutely thrives at his private (we've had him in public and at a different private school, so we know). It's worth it to see him happy and doing so well.

Our HHI is 160k and we pay 10k a year for Christian private. It’s a stretch for us but mcps is a mess right now so we prioritized it for our now 4th grader. She will stay in this school thru 8th then go back to public for HS.

We have two kids in a NYC private and make about $1.5m HHI combined with a nw of $8m. While we can afford it I maintain that it’s not a great value. The kids would be 100% fine in our local halfway decent public.

Our HHI is $200k with one kid in private. We’ve had him there for 10 years, and our HHI was $150k when he started. Does it constrain us? Well yeah - if we weren’t paying $40k for tuition we would use it for a nicer house or nicer vacations. There is always a trade off, unless you are very wealthy. But we value the school more than we value a nice house or vacation, so that is how we spend our money. There are plenty of other people at our school whose incomes are near ours - two income families with a teacher and a pediatrician, or a nurse and a fed, etc. My kid knows we have more money than 99% of the world and 90% of the US, even if we do have less money than many of his classmates. It’s never been an issue.

380k, one in private. It’s do able.

We make $500k in base and usually make about $50-70k in bonuses on top of that. We have two kids. We live in a lower cost of living city than DC (kindergarten at our Pk-8 is $17k, and currently high school goes up to $38k or so at the schools around here). It seems manageable to us, but it’s definitely a significant line item in our spending.

NP. Are there also good rules of thumb for all-in costs and yearly increases? When we did private in a different city, I realize we didn’t anticipate everything. Trying to determine now whether to apply next year even if a stretch. The public schools have been disappointing.