Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Garman admitted so much at last year's state of the school speech - he presented figures showing that ~20-30 years ago a typical private school could be afforded by the top 3 quintiles of income, and the distribution of students reflected that. Now, by comparison, it's affordable only to the top quintile and some of the 2nd quintile, again reflected in student populations.

I guess his stated concern isn't reflected in actual action.

What action would you take to address the issue, while also facing increased insurance, health insurance, benefits and salary demands?

Should they cut the music program? Latin? Ceramics? What choices would you make to address the issue?

Anonymous wrote:I will be emailing Garman and encourage others to do so as well. This is gouging.

Disagree. There have been years that the increase has been more. Complaining about it isn't going to change it. And like all of the other schools, the costs will continue to rise, every year and even after your kids leave. It is what it is. There has never been a year of a decrease and I cannot recall a year it was flat from one year to the next.

Anonymous wrote:2017-18

STA 44,144
NCS 41,975
Sidwell 40,840
GDS, 40,000 (no lunch program)
Potomac 39,770
Maret 37,700

This pretty much says it all.

Sidwell isn't at the top in terms of costs, but the salary/wages need to keep pace with inflation and COLA standards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Garman admitted so much at last year's state of the school speech - he presented figures showing that ~20-30 years ago a typical private school could be afforded by the top 3 quintiles of income, and the distribution of students reflected that. Now, by comparison, it's affordable only to the top quintile and some of the 2nd quintile, again reflected in student populations.

I guess his stated concern isn't reflected in actual action.

What action do you propose? Keep tuition the same and make program cuts? Keep tuition the same and pay teachers less relative to their peers at other public and private school (which probably means losing said teachers)? I think if there was a clear action to take he would have done it already, but there isn't an obvious solution. Or even a non-obvious one.

dp: The increase over time has been in administrative salaries (in aggregate), not in teacher salaries. Teacher salaries have increased at a slower rate than tuition.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Garman admitted so much at last year's state of the school speech - he presented figures showing that ~20-30 years ago a typical private school could be afforded by the top 3 quintiles of income, and the distribution of students reflected that. Now, by comparison, it's affordable only to the top quintile and some of the 2nd quintile, again reflected in student populations.

I guess his stated concern isn't reflected in actual action.

What action do you propose? Keep tuition the same and make program cuts? Keep tuition the same and pay teachers less relative to their peers at other public and private school (which probably means losing said teachers)? I think if there was a clear action to take he would have done it already, but there isn't an obvious solution. Or even a non-obvious one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

+1.

This. The actual middle class in America doesn't send their kids to private school.

Well, in some parts of the country the actual middle class can (and sometimes does) send their child to parochial or other religious schools. In my current non-DC, west coast city (that still has a high cost of living) parochial school for parish members starts around $6,000 for the first child, with discounts for subsequent children. There is also financial aid available for parish members. All this makes it quite attainable. Even our good public schools seems pretty bad to anyone familiar with public schools in other parts of the country, though, so what parochial school buys you is really just the equivalent to a good solid public school elsewhere (with the addition of religion, of course).

Parochial schools are not in the same financial league as standard private school. You know that based on your own post about financial discounts.

Well, parochial schools *are* private schools, but I get your point. Our top tier, competitive private schools top out at under $30,000 still (though not for long I predict) - a whole lot less than in DC (or NY or Boston) but still pretty unattainable for the middle class.

The real deal in my area are the language immersion schools. They are widely considered to provide an excellent education, small classes, etc. for more like $15,000 - 20.000. I recommend them a lot to people who like everything about the top tier independents but can't (or won't) pay tuition that high. I don't know if that dynamic is the same in other places. I'm assuming they are able to provide what they do at the cost they do is because they get some funding from the government of their language-affiliated country.

Whitman Free
B-CC Free
Blair Free
TJ Free
WJ Free
Wooton Free
Churchill Free

Private school families have gotten more concentrated with lawyers and bankers now. 15 or 20 years ago, a family of professors, fed govt careerists, non-profit EDs could manage -- barely -- to send their kids to private schools. The 4-5% annual increase in tuition has definitely outpacde government pay raises. Unfortunately, the schools lose out on smart, academic, civic-minded families.

Anonymous wrote:

Second point, Sidwell Friends is really pushing the envelope on charging over $40k for ALL grade levels, including PK, K, 1, 2, etc. Unlike most other privates in the area and coasts and boarding schools which charge less for lower schools.

That's true - as a sidwell parent with a child who started in upper grades I'm happy to have at least some of the expense (HS is more expensive than LS) covered by younger kids' parents.

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Garman admitted so much at last year's state of the school speech - he presented figures showing that ~20-30 years ago a typical private school could be afforded by the top 3 quintiles of income, and the distribution of students reflected that. Now, by comparison, it's affordable only to the top quintile and some of the 2nd quintile, again reflected in student populations.

I guess his stated concern isn't reflected in actual action.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

+1.

This. The actual middle class in America doesn't send their kids to private school.

Well, in some parts of the country the actual middle class can (and sometimes does) send their child to parochial or other religious schools. In my current non-DC, west coast city (that still has a high cost of living) parochial school for parish members starts around $6,000 for the first child, with discounts for subsequent children. There is also financial aid available for parish members. All this makes it quite attainable. Even our good public schools seems pretty bad to anyone familiar with public schools in other parts of the country, though, so what parochial school buys you is really just the equivalent to a good solid public school elsewhere (with the addition of religion, of course).

Parochial schools are not in the same financial league as standard private school. You know that based on your own post about financial discounts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you're truly "middle class" you shouldn't be attending this school in the firs place.

Face it. Private school is for rich people, period. Don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

+1.

This. The actual middle class in America doesn't send their kids to private school.

Well, in some parts of the country the actual middle class can (and sometimes does) send their child to parochial or other religious schools. In my current non-DC, west coast city (that still has a high cost of living) parochial school for parish members starts around $6,000 for the first child, with discounts for subsequent children. There is also financial aid available for parish members. All this makes it quite attainable. Even our good public schools seems pretty bad to anyone familiar with public schools in other parts of the country, though, so what parochial school buys you is really just the equivalent to a good solid public school elsewhere (with the addition of religion, of course).

Our eldest graduated GDS and did not get into any of these schools. My youngest is at Walls and just go early admission to an Ivy. They both had similar test scores. Go figure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be emailing Garman and encourage others to do so as well. This is gouging.

It sucks. You should complain. But it is not gauging. STA, NCS, Maret, GDS and Potomac all within a few thousand dollars of Sidwell.

Hard to argue that Increasing 3.75 percent is gauging. It also doesn't fit the definition of gauging. You are no more captive to Sidwell than you were last year.

"Gouging." Where did you people go to school?!

really?

Anonymous wrote:The actual middle class in America doesn't send their kids to private school.

Yep, and insofar as this forum is concerned the actual middle class in the DC area doesn't send their kids to private school either.