Private schools are expensive to operate.
Parents and guardians who enroll their children in them willingly pay the high price required for this alternative to public schools.
Despite the costs associated with private schools, many parents consider them an investment in their children’s future success.
To them, expensive tuition today offers their kids personal fulfillment and opportunities that will open doors tomorrow.
Here are 10 reasons that private schools are so expensive.
Why Are Private Schools So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)
1. Funding Source And Pedigree
Public schools get funding from public sources.
In some locations, taxpayers see public schools as a luxury that should receive bare-bones funding.
By contrast, private schools derive much of their funding from high tuition payments, donations, endowments, investment returns, and philanthropy from their alumni.
Their primary sources of financial support offer a defining distinction between public and private schools.
Fundraising and “prospect cultivation”—seeking donors—are important responsibilities of private school administrators and trustees.
Some private schools do receive public funds if they operate as charter schools, and a few operate on former public school campuses in states where lawmakers focus on privatization initiatives in education.
Exclusive private schools may focus on “pedigree” by offering legacy admissions to the children of alumni or deep-pocketed donors.
Similar to the way some companies market their high-end products as superior to the generic alternative, private schools emphasize the value of their pedigree in their marketing materials.
Private schools tout graduates who have landed successful careers and high-paying jobs to prove their value.
Their elite or exclusive character attracts great interest among parents with resources who want the best for their kids.
2. Smaller Class Size
A lower student-to-teacher ratio is found in private schools.
To many parents and guardians, class size matters.
They willingly pay high tuition for their children to get greater access to teachers and more individualized instruction.
In 2016–2017, the average private elementary classroom had 16.7 students, while public elementary classrooms averaged 20.9 students.
The difference in student-to-teacher ratio becomes more pronounced in general education classes than in specialized electives.
In public schools, general and remedial courses have crowded classrooms.
Higher-level foreign language classes and other electives in public schools may have fewer students, but these course sections are often the first to be placed on the budgetary chopping block.
By comparison, private schools understand that specialized classes with fewer students in them attract parents concerned about their children’s education.
Parents with financial means are willing to pay for lower class sizes and better access to high-quality teachers.
3. Greater Investment in Infrastructure
Private schools invest in the best infrastructure and equipment possible.
Parents want their kids to take classes in clean, well-equipped, and well-maintained facilities.
Fancy computer and science labs, well-stocked libraries, and comfortable state-of-the-art gyms and swimming pools attract their interest.
Except in places where public entities fund charter schools, most of the cost for these enhanced resources must come from expensive tuition charges that parents and guardians pay.
Private schools usually own the land and buildings where the campus operates, and are fully responsible for their upkeep.
As buildings age and new equipment become necessary, private schools must pay for these things.
Private schools must hire a sufficient number of staff members to keep the campus tidy and inviting.
Parents paying for expensive private schools do not want their children attending dirty schools or using filthy facilities.
Students in private schools may have messy lockers, but the overall campus is clean and welcoming.
4. Higher Instructional Costs
Private schools tend to invest more funds in paying for teacher salaries than their public school counterparts.
In elite private schools, this means teachers may have more take-home pay for their work.
Private schools often justify increased salaries for these teachers due to their extensive teaching experience and advanced degrees.
Many teachers on exclusive private school campuses have master’s or doctorate degrees in their field of study.
Some of these teachers may also serve as part-time, adjunct faculty at nearby colleges or universities.
These connections open additional doors for the secondary students these educators teach in the private school.
Private schools may offer incentives for their teachers to take additional graduate-level courses in their fields.
On residential campuses, these educators may also have access to free or low-cost meals and accommodations.
Teacher Salaries
Headteachers and senior educators often command high salaries.
Not all private school teachers get paid better than their public school counterparts, however.
Some Catholic schools have nuns and other educators who receive much lower pay.
Even in private schools with higher instructional costs, the average teacher’s pay might be less.
This could occur because younger teachers attracted to private schools earn less than long-time teachers at public schools.
This also reflects the reality that maintaining smaller class sizes requires a private school to hire more teachers per pupil.
While some private school teachers enjoy a handsome array of benefits, they may get less than their public school peers.
As public employees, public school teachers often have guaranteed pensions or other job protections negotiated through a union or collective bargaining process.
Public school teachers tend to have greater job security.
While a private school teacher may serve as an at-will employee, public school teachers may be able to call upon their union if they face demotion, retaliation, termination, or other sanctions.
Moving from the classroom to the principal’s office, private schools also have higher administrative costs.
The principal or headmaster, as well as other senior administrators, tend to be highly-regarded professionals.
Higher fees and fundraising initiatives attract a high caliber of leaders.
They may have personal vehicles, and even a private residence funded in part by the trustees at their disposal.
The Peter Principle happens less frequently in determining who sits in the principal’s office of the private school.
5. Flexible Curriculum
Private schools have more flexibility in tailoring their curriculum.
Parents also have more input into the curriculum at many private schools.
One important reason parents pay high tuition to private schools is the quality of the curriculum.
Although these institutions must meet certain standards issued by the state and accrediting bodies, private schools have more latitude when developing course requirements and graduation standards.
Public schools have to meet state requirements, too, but they have far less freedom to experiment.
Legislators and school board members frequently inject themselves into discussions about the curriculum offered in public schools, sometimes to the detriment of the students.
Private schools operating under the authority of religious bodies usually offer courses in religious education.
Nearly 80% of private school students attend a campus with some level of religious affiliation.
Almost two million students attend Catholic schools, though more than 18% of them have other religious affiliations at home.
Even if they have a prescribed religious focus, private schools, in general, have greater flexibility to introduce a traditional liberal arts education to their students.
Younger students at Montessori schools have opportunities for self-directed study that differ greatly from a student forced to study on their own due to overcrowded classrooms in underfunded public schools.
Field trips, visiting speakers, and increased opportunities for hands-on learning are often part of the private school curriculum.
Art and music experiences rarely offered in public schools are often among the private school course offerings.
At the secondary level, private schools have advanced courses that prepare students for a transition into a college or university.
The average private school offers 11 Advanced Placement courses, compared with an average of eight for all secondary schools.
Some religious private schools may include a curricular component that requires “missions” to the outside world.
Many private schools incorporate public service or community outreach into the curriculum.
The difference between the curricula in private and public schools has become more obvious in recent years.
Many states have called for a back-to-basics education in public schools that emphasizes mandated tests and core curricula and allows for fewer electives.
Electives now offered in public schools tend to focus more on practical skills than on intellectual pursuits.
6. Extra Academic Resources
In addition to smaller class sizes, private schools often provide additional academic support not found in public schools.
Tutors and other instructional support staff provide a lot of assistance to the classroom teachers.
Tutoring services may include basic assistance for students with learning disabilities and special needs.
Paraprofessionals, teacher assistants, and tutors may also offer a wide range of focused workshops to prepare students for college prep, Advanced Placement, or International Baccalaureate programs.
Some of these support services are similar to those found in public schools, such as guidance counselors, but often with better resources.
Guidance counselors and advisors in private schools prepare college-bound kids for the next level.
Even if a student prefers a vocational track instead of the university experience, counselors have more resources to steer their students in the best direction.
Other support staff may teach piano or other instruments or offer foreign language immersion.
Private schools may also offer elite and individualized sports not found in public schools, such as polo or fencing.
Larger private schools also field traditional sports teams for kids, such as basketball, football, and softball.
Parents may prefer an expensive private school because when it comes to tutoring and helping their kids, the “school takes care of it.”
These extra resources cost a pretty penny that many public schools lack.
7. Extracurricular Experiences
In addition to extra academic resources, private schools also provide extracurricular resources that expand experiences outside of the classroom.
Clubs and student organizations exist at most schools, but private schools have more resources for them.
The adage, “you get what you pay for,” often applies to the expensive extracurricular experiences some of these schools have available.
Many private schools offer cultural heritage journeys to museums, concerts, and other performances.
Private schools budget a lot of money to offer expensive field trips, language and music lessons, and other out-of-class activities.
These trips and social experiences round out the already-impressive in-class curriculum.
Many of these extracurricular experiences build character and leadership.
Other activities promote personal growth, as well as sportsmanship and broader social awareness.
The extra fees required for these experiences may become quite costly.
Their price, however, gives a much greater return for students who gain real-world experiences that no single textbook can provide.
8. More Expensive Supplies
Unlike public schools which are often strapped for resources, private school tuition allows for the purchase of adequate supplies.
Many public school teachers dig into their pockets to buy pencils, pens, and paper.
Some public school teachers hold fundraisers or even sell doughnuts to raise money for school supplies.
Most private schools have sufficient resources to make sure students have basic needs met.
Beyond that, the students’ families tend to have better access to funds.
In addition to giving their children school supplies, many private schools require parents to purchase uniforms for their kids.
Children attending private schools rarely show up in class without the basic tools they need.
Beyond the basics, private schools also invest in better gadgets, computers, and scientific supplies, such as microscopes.
Public school students might have to use test tubes older than they are.
They may sit at the same desks that their parents used a generation earlier.
Conversely, private school students get newer equipment, if these items will further their educational interests in the classroom.
To meet the expectations of parents, private schools must invest in quality materials rather than cheap alternatives.
Expensive supplies go beyond what is in the physical plant, to include resources such as access to digital access and other subscription-based content.
Private school administrators often supplement their libraries by entering into partnerships with local public libraries.
Some private high schools even arrange for their students to have library privileges at nearby colleges.
9. Security Costs
Parents in some parts of the country select private schools for reasons other than the curriculum.
If they live in an area where public schools have suffered low funding and decline for many years, the private schools that exist in the community may be the only safe alternatives for them to select.
Although rarely mentioned directly, one selling point of private schools is the sense of security they offer.
Parents paying out of pocket expect a safe environment for their children.
Whether in the inner city or a suburban area, private schools hire security guards.
Security guards and other protective measures found in private schools come with a cost.
While public schools may also have security guards, many public school campuses rely on the already-overworked local police or sheriff’s deputies.
Attacks on students, teachers, and administrators happen at much lower rates in private schools.
In private schools that mandate uniforms, it is easier to determine if an outsider has entered the campus.
In areas where gang activity is more common, gangs are more likely to appear on public school campuses than at nearby private schools.
Due to enhanced security and greater parental involvement, private schools see less hate-related graffiti.
Although bullying is a universal problem in all schools, it tends to occur at a lower rate in private schools.
Although theft and vandalism happen in all schools, additional security resources make it less likely to happen in private schools.
Beyond the paid security staff, another type of investment in security oversight often occurs in private schools.
Since parents and guardians pay high tuition to private schools, they get more involved in the day-to-day oversight of those institutions.
Parent-teacher groups and parent oversight boards make campus safety a high priority.
If incidents occur, parents demand answers and, if necessary, dig deeper into their pockets to fund additional resources.
10. Varieties Of Choice
The most important thing to consider when knowing that private schools are so expensive is that a variety of private schools exist.
When looking at the full span of private education, in 2021 dollars, the cost of private education from kindergarten through a four-year degree averages over $290,000.
This estimate does not represent more exclusive schools that have residential programs or boarding costs.
Some private schools have tuition and other costs that are more expensive than other schools.
The average tuition at private schools throughout the United States in 2021 dollars was $12,350.
Tuition rises at the high school level, reaching $16,040 per year.
The top 260 boarding schools have an average annual cost of $37,590, including room and board.
By comparison, the average tuition at the nation’s 5158 Catholic elementary schools is much lower, only $4,840 per year.
With such wide variations in tuition, parents seeking a private school education should shop around and compare what various educational institutions will offer their children as they continue their academic journey.
What Are The Choices?
When considering private schools, parents should understand their differences in cost as well as their educational approach in the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and resources available to students and the instructional staff.
Below are some considerations that will affect how expensive a private school may be for students.
A. For-Profit Or Nonprofit
While all private schools charge fees, for-profit schools are in the business of making money for investors.
Nonprofit schools, often run by private foundations or religious entities, tend to have lower fees than for-profit ones.
B. Faith-Based
The majority of private schools—approximately two-thirds of them—have a religious focus.
These schools attract more than three-fourths of the students who enroll in private schools.
There is diversity within religious schools.
Some religious schools get funding from tuition fees but operate independently from a church or other religious house of worship.
Other religious schools exist as parish or parochial schools that act as an extension of the religious institution that manages their activities.
Parochial schools tend to charge lower tuition and fees than other private religious schools.
C. Boarding Schools
In addition to private schools where students take classes and return home at the end of the day, boarding schools offer a different alternative.
Boarding schools provide lodging, meals, and a more supervised and controlled environment where students live away from their homes.
Some boarding school students who live on campus during weekdays may head home on the weekends.
Faculty and staff who work at boarding schools either live on campus or in the immediate community surrounding the institution.
D. Specific Field of Study
Some specialty schools also exist.
They may offer intense instruction and boarding opportunities for students pursuing a specific instructional interest, such as language immersion, tennis playing, or theatrical or musical performances.
E. Special Education
Other private schools may provide educational opportunities for students on the autism spectrum, as well as those with disabilities or learning disorders.
Teachers at these specialized private schools have training and experience appropriate for the needs of the students enrolled at these locations.
Tuition and fees at specialized schools reflect the costs associated with the intense levels of instruction, supervision, and support necessary to ensure student success.
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