With Riverdale Country School raising their tuition to $40,450 a year for high school students in 2011-2012, New York private schools have topped the $40K mark for the first time. Though the head of Riverdale tells the WSJ that he's "perturbed" by the rising education costs, he says that "our parents rightfully make it a priority for their children to have the opportunity of an amazing education and are willing to pay for that." Yes, but once you factor in tutoring that's the same price as tuition, and the apartment you have to buy your kids when they graduate, educating your kids costs a lot more than $40K a year. Nevertheless, money and influence do buy achievement.
Most alarming is that New York's private schools offer a significantly lower amount of financial aid to their students compared to Ivy League universities. Princeton and Harvard offer 60% of their students an average of $38,000 to defer their annual tuition of $37K and $34K respectively. In contrast, only 19.9% of the city's private school students receive aid, and the average grant is $21,350. Grace Church School's head asks, "The question is, when does it stop? And you have to assume that there will be a point at which is will stop." Forget this tuition thing: who wants to tell him about Santa Claus?
Because children who attend these schools are given fantastic opportunities that otherwise wouldn't be available to them (Mandarin lessons, high-tech facilities or in the case of the yet-to-open Avenues school in Chelsea: "Studying on Five Continents"). As the director at the Parents League of New York puts it, "parents, they just say, 'OK, this is the price we have to pay for an independent school education.' It's like the price we have to pay for living in New York City. Everything is expensive." Ahh, denial: where would we be without you?
