Public school can end up being much more expensive than private school depending on where you choose to live.
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For most Americans, private school seems like an unaffordable luxury,
or an unnecessary extravagance, depending on your point of view. One
thing everyone agrees on, though, is that private school is
expensive—especially compared with the competition. After all, public
education doesn’t cost anything, and you can’t compete with free, right?
The
problem with that logic is that public school actually isn’t free. In
what might be one of America’s most regressive policies, the government
divides the country into school districts, each supported by a local tax
base. That means school funding and quality varies drastically
depending on where you live, and homes in top school districts tend to
be eye-poppingly expensive.
According to a recent Trulia report,
houses in districts where even rich families send their children to
public school—suggesting the quality of education is especially high—can
cost more than twice the national average per square foot. That means
in certain cases, private school can actually be a bargain.
To answer the question of how much going to private school could
potentially save, we need the help of two fictional families: the
Publicos and the Privados. The Publicos want to give their child the
best public education they can, so they move to a neighborhood with one
of the nation’s top public schools. The Privados prefer private
education, so they move to a neighborhood with average schools (and
median home prices) and send their child to prep school.
To figure out how much the Publicos will spend, we’ll use Trulia’s Rent vs. Buy calculator*
to see how much living in an average-size house in a top school
district for 13 years (kindergarten through 12th grade) would cost. A
median-priced house in Auburndale, Massachusetts—which Trulia lists as
having some of the best public schools—will end up costing the Publicos
about $2,120 a month.
In comparison, we’ll say the Privados live in an average school
district and buy a home that will cost the national median of roughly
$998 a month over the same time period. On top of that, the Privados pay
for their child’s private school. According to data
from the Nation Center for Education Statistics, the average price of a
year of private elementary school is $7,770, and the average annual
cost of private high school is $13,030.
By multiplying the cost of elementary school by nine (grades K-8) and
adding it to the cost of a four-year high school, we get an average
total cost of educating a child privately of $122,050, or $782 a month.
Add that to the Privados’ housing bills, and they’re up to $1,780 a
month—still a few hundred dollars less than the Publicos’ monthly costs.
Over time, these savings add up. By the time the Publicos’ child
graduates high school, they will have paid $52,982 more than the
Privados for education and housing. Meanwhile, if the Privados stashed
away those savings in a 529 college account, they’ll have a lot of extra
money to help pay for their son’s or daughter’s university.
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Does this mean private school is always a better option for parents?
Not at all. The above calculations compare one of the most expensive
public school districts in the nation with the average cost of private
school. The most elite prep schools can cost upwards of $40,000 a year,
while some areas with great public schools are far more affordable than
Auburndale.
There are also a number of factors to consider that this calculation
doesn’t take into account. While private schools cost $9,388 a year in
general, religious schools are a little cheaper, and secular schools are
much more expensive. There’s also regional considerations, like commute
times, employment opportunities, crime rate, and other neighborhood
perks that we don’t have time to explore in detail.
One final thing to consider is how many children you plan on sending
to school. If both the Publicos and Privados send two children to school
instead of one, the Publicos actually save almost $70,000. Although, if
the Privados send two kids to public elementary school and then
transfer both children to a private high school, they’re back in the
black, saving almost $71,000.
So with that in mind, what’s the takeaway from all this? Instead of
automatically selecting public or private school for your child, make
sure to give both options serious consideration. Sometimes—likely most
of the time—public school will be cheaper. In other cases, a good
private education may actually cost less. Either way, taking the time to
get the decision right can save you thousands of dollars.
* Other than the “How long would you live there?” field, which we
set to 13, and the region, our calculations are based on the
calculator’s default settings.
#Source:
How Sending Your Child to Private School Can Save You $53,000 | Jacob Davidson
Aug. 18, 2014
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