Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
This is really worrisome.

We're a 2 income professional family--HHI $400k. Again we can swing the $44K but $50K in 2 years and $65K in 6 gets crazy.
This prices out us and everyone like us---you know all everyone but the richest of the rich. My husband is a doctor and I'd say this prices out 95% of physicians. All lawyers except equity partners.
I'm worried that if we go down this road my kid will be in school with only the children of hedge fund managers.

That said, he loved the school and we loved a lot about the school.

+1. Our DS is not at St. Alban's but is at another school with what seem like huge tuition increases each year. Like you, we may be priced out if the increases are too much.

How can we ask parents push back without causing the schools to dislike us? The schools should offer an explanation, and not just assume that everyone can absorb the increase. I work for a large corporation that is well-managed, and we are very conscious of our prices.

This is a very good question and one a lot of people would like the answer to.

Is this an issue that could be taken up by a group like the Parents Council of Washington, the group that is supposed to unify interests of all of the area privates?

I think we are on the verge of a private school bubble. For the first time I am hearing fellow two income families talking about moving to public or Catholic. Some of the public schools have fantastic programs and people are starting to ask why they are paying so much.

My class of 2002 we had tons of families of double Fed worker parents. No way that is the case nowadays. It's all private real estate, private equity, surgeons, wealthy professors, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's really sickening. We have three kids in private. Thinking about going public for my youngest. Those of us who make too much for FA but just barely enough to afford private school are getting squeezed out. Pretty soon private school will only be for the richest of the rich and lower to middle class. No room for upper middle class, or working class families. So staggering.

Privates school has almost always been for the richest of the rich.

What? So not true. Its always been for the upper middle class. Boarding school is more typically for the uber-rich.

I meant 10-25%, usually a 3-6% of foundation payout ratio.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - this is the trend and its been the trend to increase about 1% or just under 1% per year.

but St Albans has been increasing roughly 10% a year. Not 1%.

Am i missing something?

Correct, 7-10% per year increase at most private schools, like clockwork. Remember one third of that tuition goes to subsidizing scholarship and faculty children. Endowment or foundation maybe pays 19-25% of annual operating costs if you're lucky.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's really sickening. We have three kids in private. Thinking about going public for my youngest. Those of us who make too much for FA but just barely enough to afford private school are getting squeezed out. Pretty soon private school will only be for the richest of the rich and lower to middle class. No room for upper middle class, or working class families. So staggering.

Privates school has almost always been for the richest of the rich.

That is not in fact true. Let's put aside the many, many private schools outside of DC that have tuition that are not nearly as high (Cost of living aside). Even so, the increase in tuition has greatly outpaced increases in average income, or even income in upper quintiles. 30 years ago middle class families could afford, albeit with some sacrifice, typical private school tuition. Now that's barely true.

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
This is really worrisome.

We're a 2 income professional family--HHI $400k. Again we can swing the $44K but $50K in 2 years and $65K in 6 gets crazy.
This prices out us and everyone like us---you know all everyone but the richest of the rich. My husband is a doctor and I'd say this prices out 95% of physicians. All lawyers except equity partners.
I'm worried that if we go down this road my kid will be in school with only the children of hedge fund managers.

That said, he loved the school and we loved a lot about the school.

+1. Our DS is not at St. Alban's but is at another school with what seem like huge tuition increases each year. Like you, we may be priced out if the increases are too much.

How can we ask parents push back without causing the schools to dislike us? The schools should offer an explanation, and not just assume that everyone can absorb the increase. I work for a large corporation that is well-managed, and we are very conscious of our prices.

OP here.
This is really worrisome.

We're a 2 income professional family--HHI $400k. Again we can swing the $44K but $50K in 2 years and $65K in 6 gets crazy.
This prices out us and everyone like us---you know all everyone but the richest of the rich. My husband is a doctor and I'd say this prices out 95% of physicians. All lawyers except equity partners.
I'm worried that if we go down this road my kid will be in school with only the children of hedge fund managers.

That said, he loved the school and we loved a lot about the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes - this is the trend and its been the trend to increase about 1% or just under 1% per year.

but St Albans has been increasing roughly 10% a year. Not 1%.

Am i missing something?

Sorry I am bad at math! its like 10$ per year... really. they BS and say it isn't but it is usually an increase between 2 - 3 k per year

This is a reasonable thing to ask the school. “What is the board/administrations target for annual tuition increases? How successful have they been at keeping to this target? What are reasons they have exceeded t in the past or might in the future?” If the school is remotely well-governed they’ll be able to answer these easily.

Anonymous wrote:From what i can tell it went from $39K in 2015-2016 to $44K this year (or an increase of $3K a year).
Will it be $47K for the fall of 2018 and $50K for the fall of 2019?
We're looking at middle school and at this rate we'll be at $62K+ by the time my son is a senior.

PLEASE, hold the snark. I'm asking for honest and or realistic thoughts.
Is this honestly what I can project to happen?
We can maybe afford $44K now but this will be $60K in 5 short years.

Yes

Our experience in several different schools (although not STA) is typically a 3% increase each year. In years where there is something big in the budget, it can be 5-10%. This is usually accompanied by an explanation or strategic plan or something. (But the following year's 3% is based on this new higher amount, so even though they say it's a one-time thing, the financial impact carries.)

Not really pp. The tuition increase rate or tuition itself was for many much more manageable in the 80's and 90's when I went to a dc private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's really sickening. We have three kids in private. Thinking about going public for my youngest. Those of us who make too much for FA but just barely enough to afford private school are getting squeezed out. Pretty soon private school will only be for the richest of the rich and lower to middle class. No room for upper middle class, or working class families. So staggering.

Privates school has almost always been for the richest of the rich.

I don't even get these comments. You choose to have three kids and put them in expensive privates. You either go to an affordable private or public. You are not upper middle or working class if you are paying over $120K a year or more in school costs and still live comfortably. Put kids in private if you can barely afford it and save the money for college which is far more helpful for kids. I'd be pissed as the youngest that the two older ones got private and I got public. Privates that are that costly have always been for the rich or those who get aid.