As others have said, they own the land and have wealthy donors funding the impressive sports complexes and other upgrades.

Anonymous wrote:What is "SJC"?

St. John's College (SJC) high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am unaware of any parochial high schools in the DC area. Do you mean Catholic high schools, or specifically diocesan ones?

Many Catholic schools have long histories. Their buildings are paid off. Also, given that their mission is to provide a Catholic education to as many kids as possible, they aren't spending money on bells and whistles. I know that at the school where my kid attends, there are sports teams practicing in the Cafeteria, and running laps on the sidewalk around the building, because of lack of fancy practice facilities. The education is fantastic, but it doesn't have the posh feel of other area privates.

Umm...Georgetown Prep has a golf course, indoor pool, indoor track, and lighted outdoor stadium with artificial turf. Gonzaga has a full lighted stadium and track, as does Archbishop Carroll. In Virginia, Paul VI is building a $60M new campus. All have indoor gyms too. Visi has "an athletic center, two playing fields (including a turf field), and four tennis courts—all shaded by majestic, historic trees." Even little St. Anselms has "an outdoor tennis facility, batting cages and baseball diamonds, and a state-of-the-art gymnasium." If anything, the Catholic schools spend far more on athletics than the non-sectarian independent schools.

Prep also costs as much as a Big 3.

Sidwell has multiple gyms, and multiple turf fields, with fewer HS students than Visi.

Prep, Visi and Holy Child ain't cheap.....

What is "SJC"?

We were at a very expensive and well respected private for several years, and we had bad teachers 4 of the 6 years there.

We left for a parochial school, and have been so impressed with the excellent, well trained teachers.

So I don't think you can 'clump' any one reason why Catholic schools are less expensive. It actually makes me question the missions of the Pricey Episcopalian schools--why are they so expensive? It makes no sense.

I went to parochial k-8 and the teachers were abysmal. Lots of parish moms, ex nuns, etc with minimal teaching experience. We had a good professional principal and k-1st but after that it was literally people's moms. We went to church for at least 1 class hour/ week. Also, old marked up books and aging facilities. Class size was pretty good (22 in 8th).
I went to single sex Catholic high school and it was an amazing education. But expensive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am unaware of any parochial high schools in the DC area. Do you mean Catholic high schools, or specifically diocesan ones?

Many Catholic schools have long histories. Their buildings are paid off. Also, given that their mission is to provide a Catholic education to as many kids as possible, they aren't spending money on bells and whistles. I know that at the school where my kid attends, there are sports teams practicing in the Cafeteria, and running laps on the sidewalk around the building, because of lack of fancy practice facilities. The education is fantastic, but it doesn't have the posh feel of other area privates.

Umm...Georgetown Prep has a golf course, indoor pool, indoor track, and lighted outdoor stadium with artificial turf. Gonzaga has a full lighted stadium and track, as does Archbishop Carroll. In Virginia, Paul VI is building a $60M new campus. All have indoor gyms too. Visi has "an athletic center, two playing fields (including a turf field), and four tennis courts—all shaded by majestic, historic trees." Even little St. Anselms has "an outdoor tennis facility, batting cages and baseball diamonds, and a state-of-the-art gymnasium." If anything, the Catholic schools spend far more on athletics than the non-sectarian independent schools.

SJC has big donors and underwriting from the founder of Under Armor, an alum. Their academic, arts and sports facilities are on par with many privates

Anonymous wrote:I am unaware of any parochial high schools in the DC area. Do you mean Catholic high schools, or specifically diocesan ones?

Many Catholic schools have long histories. Their buildings are paid off. Also, given that their mission is to provide a Catholic education to as many kids as possible, they aren't spending money on bells and whistles. I know that at the school where my kid attends, there are sports teams practicing in the Cafeteria, and running laps on the sidewalk around the building, because of lack of fancy practice facilities. The education is fantastic, but it doesn't have the posh feel of other area privates.

Umm...Georgetown Prep has a golf course, indoor pool, indoor track, and lighted outdoor stadium with artificial turf. Gonzaga has a full lighted stadium and track, as does Archbishop Carroll. In Virginia, Paul VI is building a $60M new campus. All have indoor gyms too. Visi has "an athletic center, two playing fields (including a turf field), and four tennis courts—all shaded by majestic, historic trees." Even little St. Anselms has "an outdoor tennis facility, batting cages and baseball diamonds, and a state-of-the-art gymnasium." If anything, the Catholic schools spend far more on athletics than the non-sectarian independent schools.

Anonymous wrote:Elementary K-8 schools are partially funded by parishes. However, high schools are not, are they? Donors? Lower teacher pay? It used to be that nuns taught at them, so teacher pay was a non-issue.

High schools can be; there just are not any parochial high schools in this area. But I know of many parochial high schools in other cities/states.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subsidized by parishes, less spent on facilities generally, larger class sizes.

And less experienced, younger faculty that costs less than more experienced, older faculty.

I would say otherwise, actually.

Anonymous wrote:Also privates can spend and charge less than they do, possibly without degrading the education and broader experience, but those that can command a premium often succumb to the temptation to set tuition high. The question could be why are certain private schools so expensive?

Do you have evidence for this assertion?

Also privates can spend and charge less than they do, possibly without degrading the education and broader experience, but those that can command a premium often succumb to the temptation to set tuition high. The question could be why are certain private schools so expensive?

Elementary K-8 schools are partially funded by parishes. However, high schools are not, are they? Donors? Lower teacher pay? It used to be that nuns taught at them, so teacher pay was a non-issue.

Anonymous wrote:The Catholic schools have typically been around for a long time and own the facilities with no mortgage payments, etc.

That is a very large savings.

For example, Gonzaga and SJC and Visi have been operating since before the civil war.

And a school like St. Anselm's Abbey is located on the property of the Abbey and thus has much lower overhead.

Schools that formed more recently probably had to pay much more for the land and facilities.

Your points about the land, etc, are correct but FYI that none of the high schools that you named are "parochial". So, yes, the above schools do have much lower overhead for the reasons you indicate but, no, they are not parochial schools because they are NOT part of a parish. In this area we don't actually have many/any parochial high schools that I know of.

And at the elementary level schools offer even more greatly discounted tuition because of the high rate of financial support and subsidy from the parishes.

Because of the Catholic history of moving into immigrant enclaves and establishing schools and sometimes parishes during the late 1800s and very early 1900s many of the Catholic schools, whether parochial or independent, are in the heart of most cities and, therefore, operate on "prime" landscape.