THERE are certain mathematical realities associated with New York City
private schools: There are more students than seats at the top-tier
schools, at least three sets of twins will be vying head to head for
spots in any class, and already-expensive tuition can only go up.
Way up.
Over the past 10 years, the median price of first grade in the city has
gone up by 48 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared with a 35
percent increase at private schools nationally — and just 24 percent at
an Ivy League college — according to tuition data provided by 41 New
York City K-12 private schools to the National Association of Independent Schools.
Indeed, this year’s tuition at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory ($38,340 for 12th grade) and Horace Mann
($37,275 for the upper school) is higher than Harvard’s ($36,305).
Those 41 schools (out of 61 New York City private schools in the
national association) provided enough data to enable a 10-year analysis.
(Over all, inflation caused prices in general to rise 27 percent over
the past decade.)
The median 12th-grade tuition for the current school year was $36,970,
up from $21,100 in 2001-2, according to the national association’s
survey. Nationally, that figure rose to $24,240 from $14,583 a decade
ago.
With schools already setting tuition rates for the 2012-13 school year —
Brearley’s is $38,200 — parents at Horace Mann, Columbia Grammar and Trinity are braced to find out whether they will join families at Riverdale Country School
in the $40,000-a-year club. (Riverdale actually charges $40,450 for
12th grade.) In fact, it appears to be a question not of “if,” but
“when.”
“Within one to two years, every independent school will cost more than
$40,000,” said one board member at a top school who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because the school had not yet set tuition.
And that is before requests for the annual fund, tickets to the yearly
auction gala and capital campaigns to build a(nother) gym.
Parents are reluctant to complain, at least with their names attached,
for fear of hurting students’ standing (or siblings’ admissions
chances). But privately, many questioned paying more for the same. “The
school’s always had an amazing teacher-to-student ratio, learning
specialists and art programs with great music and theater,” said one
mother whose children attend the Dalton School ($36,970 a year). “It was
great a decade ago and great now.”
“They are outrageous,” said Dana Haddad,
a private admissions consultant, referring to tuitions. “People don’t
want to put a price tag on their children’s future, so they are willing
to pay more than many of them can afford.”
Administrators at several of New York’s top schools attributed the
tuition inflation to rising teacher salaries, ever-expanding programs
and renovations to aging buildings. They noted that tuition still
covered only about 80 percent of the cost of educating each child (that
is what all the fund-raising is about). As at most companies, a majority
of the costs — and the fastest-growing increases — come from salaries
and benefits, especially as notoriously low-paying private schools try
to compete with public school compensation.
“Some New York schools have had a 5, 10 or as high as 30 percent
increase in the cost of their medical plans,” said Mark Lauria, the
executive director of the New York State Association of Independent Schools.
And paying teachers is only a piece of the puzzle. Léman Manhattan Preparatory School
has a gym whose floor is cleaned twice a day. The Trinity School has
three theaters, six art studios, two tennis courts, a pool and a diving
pool. Poly Prep Country Day
School raised $2 million to open a learning center this year that has
six full-time employees offering one-on-one help with subjects as varied
as note-taking and test-taking.
“Parents are just expecting more and more of independent schools,” said
David B. Harman, the headmaster at Poly Prep. “Trying to meet that
demand, that expectation, is expensive.”
But some parents and school consultants note that many of the schools
have long had lush facilities and expansive academic and extracurricular
offerings. What keeps the prices rising, they say, is the seemingly
endless stream of people more than willing to pay them.
The median number of applications to New York schools has increased 32
percent over the past decade, according to the association, and in some
schools the acceptance rate is staggeringly low. At Trinity, only 2.4
percent of children from families with no previous connection to the
school were admitted to kindergarten last year. Far from being deterred
by the sticker prices, more families seem to be hiring consultants — at
an additional cost — in hopes of getting a leg up.
One consulting firm, Manhattan Private School Advisors,
said it worked with 1,431 families this school year, up from 605 three
years ago. The company’s fee has gone up, too: It was $21,500 this year
and $18,500 three years ago.
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sources: nytimes.com
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