How much would you pay for private school kindergarten?

nothing it would appear…
But yeah, A working model of a supersonic jet fighter for $7,000 sounds like a f*****g bargain!

That is unrealistically cheap. Is it full day or only half day? If it’s half day, it sounds more credible. I think our kindergarten cost around 18k for full day and after care. No jet models. Though they did learn to sing some cool songs that make you weep uncontrollably when they perform them at all-school concert.

Uggg. I did a project on pre-schools and one of the trends we talked about was “ivy league preschools”. You know, the parents that put their kids in the right pre-school so that they can get into the right lower elementary so they can go to the right elementary for the right middle school for the right high school for the right college. It got way worse than that too.

I will say that a really awesome school is worth every penny, but there are a lot of overpriced schools out there.

I’ll also say that if you put your kid through middle school at a good Montessori and that’s more or less possible. The last few Montessori schools I toured were all big in the Lego Robotics competitions. That’s close enough, right?

I was paying the equivalent of some $200 a month (so around 2000 a year) but that was in Poland and no, I can’t say I was impressed with the facilities or the food. The Polish kids however were learning quite a lot and had a Christmas play that I would not even expect of 7-year-olds. They were learning to count, various crafts and lots of songs. My daughter only stayed a couple of months, so of course she learnt a little more than basic Polish. But still good.

We paid $450 a month per child for a Montessori pre-school through 3rd grade, plus after care. Based on how my daughter is doing now in high school, and how she has developed her goal-setting and problem-solving abilities, I would say it was definitely worth it. When she switched to public school she was academically ahead of the other kids, but the most important thing was that she took responsibility for her learning. She is still lightyears ahead of her peers in that.

My son did not do as well, but he has some problems he needs to overcome. I have to assume, though, that without the early training he would have even bigger problems than he does. In fact, most kids with his sort of difficulties already have a long juvenile jacket. So, in that sense, it was worth it for him, too.

My parents referred to it as “sending them to college early.”

BTW, there are more expensive schools in our town, but this to me seemed to be the best.

My parents sent me and my brother to a catholic Montessori school that went to 8th grade (i went up to 3rd grade because i didnt like it but my brother went all the way to 8th) for $500 a month (and you even have to pay in the summer months) plus after school care. I would definatly say that it helped, i started when i was 3 and learned how to wash dishes, read, spanish, count, and simple cooking skills like measuring, and of course we had arts and crafts and all the other fun stuff.

This really depends on where you live and which school. The fees vary widely. It is possible with some schools to work off some of the fees if you have time and abilities. I don’t mean the volunteer work in the classroom. I mean helping with building projects, wiring, plumbing. Things the school would have to pay for otherwise. Sometimes you can get a rate for more than one child. Best to spend a day or several days observing and seeing if methods and values match yours. So, really, the “cost” is so relative it is hard to suggest a decent answer. Oh…also there are kinder. programs that are half day/vs full and some three days a week instead of five. So again, check them all out.

lol I wouldn’t pay for it. Of course, I’m a public school teacher, so I’m a little biased…
and poor.

Parents have a choice of putting time or money into their child’s education. My daughter had a grat education in public school because I spent the time to be an involved parent. That doesn’t mean that I tried to intimidate and challenge the system. I worked as a partner with the teacherm while advocating for my daughter. I got her placed in beneficial programs, attended meetings, learned about what was available, took vacation days and worked extra hours so I could volunteer in the classroom.

After she graduated, I became a teacher. I am often surprised at even though parents claim to want a good education for their children, will not support or meet with teachers, instead make excuses for missed assignments and pull their children out of classes for family trips, When the child pulls the old “My teacher hates me” gambit, parents are often in the principal’s office to complain.

Before you spend $7000 on your child’s education, do the math. Engaging your child daily about school (20 min/day) attending meetings and spending 1 day a month in the classroom will be an investment of 140 hrs/yr Instead of $7000 tuition, that’s $50/hr for your time

i teach in an independent school, and believe strongly in the value of a GOOD independent school. there are, of course, plenty of excellent public schools, and plenty of poor independent schools. and it all depends on what the public schools are like in your area, including comparing class size, which is an extremely important factor in a teacher’s ability to give independent attention to your child. class size in my school is about 17, whereas in our local schools it’s more like 30.

full-day kindergarten at my school for this year is $12,100, and it will go up next year. this is significantly below the kindergarten tuition of other independent schools in the more metropolitan/urban areas of my state.

you will often find that small-church schools will have more affordable programs, particularly if they are not accredited by your state’s organization for independent schools (for a national listing of accredited schools, visit the National Association of Independent Schools: http://nais.org/)

if you want your child to attend that school beyond kindergarten, then waiting a year to enroll in order to save some money may mean you lose the spot – kindergartens in private schools are often fuller than any other grade, because parents want those spots moving into first grade and beyond. and waiting a year may also mean your child will be unprepared for that school’s first grade program.

if i did not teach at this school and have a tuition discount because of it, i would never be able to afford it, either. but if you can afford it – i believe it is absolutely worth it. our school goes up through 8th grade, and the high schools to which our students matriculate consistently rate our students as “very well prepared” for high school.

if you determine that the school you’re considering is simply too expensive, and you don’t feel that your child would be in a bad situation in your local public schools, then heed galileogirl’s advice – be involved in your child’s education – cooperate and communicate with the teachers, enforce the school’s expectations, and be an advocate for your child – not to the point of taking away his or her responsibility, but in a way that does what is truly best for your child’s growth and development.

I went to and independent, private school from 6th grade to 12th grade, but the ages of the school range from junior kindergarten to 12th grade. The tuition is as follows:

JK – 4th Grade: 16,060.00
5th – 8th Grade: 18,035.00
9th – 12th Grade: 19,420.00

That doesn’t include almost 500.00 a year for books and supplies, though luckily lunch is included. In my experience, high school was worth the price. I got a great education from a brilliant faculty, and I was set up for success in the college application process. But paying upwards of 16,000.00 a year for early kindergarten? I don’t think so. I was just fine in my public elementary school, and came into middle school with the same level of education as the students who were continuing from the private school’s elementary school. I wouldn’t pay for elementary school, no, but I think high school was worth it.

When we were deciding where to spend our money, on early education or on high school, we were told by everybody we talked to that early education was the most important. If you get a good start, and learn how to learn, and how to love learning, it won’t matter what your high school is like. If you blow it early, it will be so much harder to make up for it later.

Based on that advice, our children are going to progressive schools from k-8, and will (we really, really hope) be going to public high schools (we can’t afford this any more, especially after the market meltdown).

@TitsMcGhee I hope it was a $Quarter million experience! Seriously, were you able to get into the college of your choice and graduate without debt? If that was also your experience, good for you, your family was in the top 5% of the country economically.

If however, in a middle class family both parents are working to pay the $25,000 tuition of 2 children, then that’s just nuts. By downgrading public schools as offering an inferior education then parents are being guilted into doing something illogical. The American way is to work to improve things for everybody rether than to opt out. We are not talking about sending suburban Justin and Brittany into the inner city but rather make sure that the suburban parents participate in the decision making in their local schools and that they support needed resources in less affluent schools.

Giving EVERY child a great education is like putting money in the bank. The only way this country can maintain its place in the world is by having the best educated work force. Marginal workers take from the system, educated workers contribute to it.

@galileogirl: those are lovely sentiments, and I totally wish they reflected reality. I don’t want to be spending that much money on my kids education. But the schools here are horrible. Maybe not because of the teachers, but because of the whole system.

There’s not enough money for supplies. The system treats its employees like children. The rules do not stimulate excellence, they stimulate boredom. Things may be changing with the introduction of charter schools, but that still doesn’t give everyone access to a decent education. The only schools in town that are any good are those in wealthy neighborhoods, where the parents are strongly involved.

Unfortunately, I don’t live in such a neighborhood. I’m in a neighborhood where the school that serves us is pretty bad. If I want my kids to get attention and an education, I can’t send them to these schools. It kills me to say this, because I have always been a believer in a public education. However, when I became a parent, I found my values to be subordinate to my love for my children.

If I had any money, I would send my kids to the best school I could. I can’t, and it causes me an enormous amount of stress.

Best being an music and arts-focused, holistic, child-centered school. Something like a cross between Creative Arts Charter School in SF, Shining Star School in Portland, Oregon, and a traditional Montessori.

@galileogirl : I agree completely. I know that I was very fortunate, and I know that my parents worked very hard to give my brother and I every possible opportunity toward my future. My parents originally pulled my brother from public school because he is incredibly gifted academically, and the middle school he attended, as well as the high school, was not on par with the advanced curriculum he required. There was also the problem of him being bullied, partially because he was so smart and wasn’t particularly social either. There was also a racial problem – there were a lot of issues with him being white in a predominantly African-American community. I didn’t have the same issues, probably because I was generally more social in nature, but he had racial slurs thrown at him all the time. Once my parents saw the benefits of the move for my brother, they decided I should follow suit. It was definitely a good move for us for college; my brother graduated from Stanford University after being accepted to all the top-level schools he applied to, and I am at the New School University (Parsons School of Design), and I was also accepted to almost all the schools I applied to. There was such a push in my high school to matriculate to some of the best colleges and universities in the country, whereas at the public high school we would’ve attended, there wasn’t, and, as a matter of fact, most students did not go on to any institute of higher learning. That is quite unfortunate, and I agree that all children should be given as many opportunities as possible. I look at the numbers for tuition in my high school, and I’m astounded – and the number gets progressively larger and larger. I am fully in favor of supporting our public schools and making them the best that they can be, but I know that there will always be private schools and people with more advantages than others.

@TitsMcGhee I don’t understand how one’s only choices are an inner city public school or $25,000/yr private school. My response to people who claim to want to support public schools is do it.

You didn’t respond to my question about whether there was family money to pay for the college education in which case your family is of course in the minority. (BTW the parents of most people I know worked very hard to earn about what your parents paid for tuition-income often doesn’t correspond to the amount of hard work it takes to earn it).

Another option is you are on high scholarship, in which case there was some modicum of genetic luck. Or withot money or scholarships you are going into serious debt which is a mistake for the majority of young people.

@galileogirl : “Inner city” isn’t exactly an accurate description of the public school I would’ve attended. In elementary school, my parents certainly did support the schools. They contributed financially, they were a part of the PTA, they attended all of the school board meetings and parent-teacher conferences. The quality of the school just was in steady decline the older we got; I saw how it would’ve been as my elementary school friends went through that high school. We still supported the school, even after we left. I attended the theatre productions and sports events, supported and voted for school board members (my parents did, and I did once I was old enough), and contributed money to different things, just like I did at my own high school. They weren’t my only choices, per se, but the choice that I made was the best choice I could make given my circumstances and means.

No, there wasn’t “family money” in the sense of wealth that didn’t come directly from either parent’s paycheck (my mother is a human resources executive and my father works out of our home as an architect). My family isn’t at all “old money.” We have been saving for college since my brother and I were pretty young, but we are not incredibly wealthy to begin with. I’m not claiming that we’re poor either; we are comfortably middle class. Both of my parents work very hard, they are both dedicated to their jobs.

I wasn’t on scholarship in high school, and my brother wasn’t either. For my entire time in high school, my brother was attending Stanford, so that tuition was added on as well, though there were some scholarships from that university. My parents worked very hard to put both of us through high school and college (four years for my brother, five years for me), and I’m not going into serious debt either. I’m very careful regarding finances, as are my parents, which is why we are able to do things like attend private school. I’m not saying that other people who are equally, if not more, frugal are doing something wrong because they can’t afford these things, but my parents managed to reach that happy balance of smart and fortunate, so that they were able to get themselves and their children through higher education.

Just a little background… my parents attended public high school (they were high school sweethearts, actually). My mother graduated from Colorado College with a BA and an MA in Russian History, and went back to school at Washington University to receive and MA in Human Resources. My father got a BFA and an MFA in Architecture from Washington University. My maternal grandparents did not go to college (my maternal grandmother didn’t even go to high school), and only my grandfather on my father’s side was a college graduate.

When we married twelve years ago, we had no intention of having children – so we chose where to live based on economics not public school system.

Seven years later we changed our mind and decided to adopt. Problem being, I have a nice house in a pleasant neighborhood that we can afford, but the public schools are terrible (yes we reseached it thoroughly). We tried opting into better public schools in neighboring towns, but were denied access.

So we pay $500/month for a private school near my job.

The difference: In the public school kindergarten, she would gave been in a class of 32 with one teacher, poor funding and little resouces. Furthermore, she would be the only Asian in the entire school. The school is 96% caucasion.

At the private school, she is in a class of 13 with a teacher and an assistant. She also has Spanish, art, music, and computer class for an hour/week each – with seperate teachers. There is much more diversity also.

And we are very involved in the school and her education. We are constantly teaching new things outside of school and either my wife or I are at the school (volunteering, meeting with teacher, etc.) three times a month.

Money well spent as far as I’m concerned (and money her tight right now).

Still, I agree very much with daloon.

1. $500 is a real bargain, that is close to the cost of daycare.
2. I don’t know how you could be denied access to public school in neighboring towns, if you moved there (Oh yes you like your current “pleasant” neighborhood.
3. Being in a predominately nonAsian environment is going to be a part of your child’s life since this country’s Asian population is about 5%.
4. The cost of private school, if it is a sacrifice for the family. will be better set aside for college as higher education costs are rising faster than inlation and govt support is decreasing.

If your family has the money to provide your child with quality private education for 16–18 years, good luck and thank your lucky stars. We have always had private education for the priviledged

However if you are one of the great majority of Americans who will lose their homes if they lose their jobs, private kindergarten @ $8000/year is foolish. 5 yos don’t need classes to fingerpaint and they will probably learn Spanish from their classmates in public school.

@galileogirl
1. I’d rather have her in public school if it was the better option. It’s not. 32 kids in a class with one teacher is unacceptable.

2. I would also love to move to one of the surrounding towns with better school systems, but I couldn’t sell my house if I wanted to. Something about the economy – you may have heard.

3. I didn’t mean only asians. The school she’s at now has a nice mix of races. This is important to us.

4. Agreed. I have been a college instructor for nine years – I’ve seen it first hand.

5. I wouldn’t consider working 3 jobs privledged – but thank you for assuming.

6. We are one of those families who would lose our home were I to be out of work. I don’t disagree that $8000/year is foolish, however, it’s my least expensive alternative at the moment. Many of the private schools in the area are upwards of $15000/year.

The minute I can sell my house and move to a town with a better public school system, I’ll be all over it.

I generally am not in favor of home schooling but if public school is not an option….

@galileogirl So private school is a waste of money and you generally are not in favor of home schooling.

I hope the public schools near you are well staffed, have a decent student/teacher ratio, can obtain the supplies they need, and are free of excessive violence and drugs.

For many people, that is simply not the case.

Note: Obviously the violence and drugs comment does not refer to the kindergartners

damn kindergartners.

nothin’s ever easy, is it?

I meant I would prefer home schooling with a well-educated parent than a ruinously priced private school.

@galileogirl: You keep pointing out that people should feel lucky if they have the money for a private school… One should feel lucky if they have a parent who can spend their time homeschooling (which could be potentially socially hazardous, especially if begun in kindergarten, where the child has had little contact with peers at this point) as opposed to working during the day, making the money to send the child to private school. Homeschooling isn’t exactly a go-to option for most people.

If you could see some of the great, intelligent, creative, hungry for learning kids I see who live in tiny apartments with parents working multiple jobs at minimum wage and are in fear of illness or layoffs you would understand what lucky really means.

They not only lack choices but no matter what they accomplish every year opportunities become fewer and fewer. This is not just a sign of the times when the state schools are raising their fees-again-but they are reducing admissions so only 3.5 students are being admitted in some cases. An $8,000 kindergarten tuition would cover a poor college student’s tuition.

That’s what I mean by lucky.

So essentially you’re guilt tripping me for the advantages that I acknowledge that I am very fortunate to have had?

I simply pointed out what I meant by lucky. If anyone feels guilt they need to figure out why.

I don’t feel guilty at all – I realize that I have had a good deal of advantages in my life, but I in no way feel guilty that my parents worked very hard to give me the best possible educational experience, to prepare me for the best possible advantages in the worlds of higher education and employment. I just feel as if you’re trying to accuse me of being selfish or middle class because there are people out there who aren’t as fortunate as I am. If you really are suggesting that that’s the attitude we should have, I suggest you get yourself to a convent and sacrifice all your worldly possessions that you have that someone else might not, and go from there. But please, don’t imply that I am not aware of the economic problems in the country and the fallacies in the public education system simply because I attended a private school. Robmandu asked a question, and I shared my experience with him. That doesn’t warrant an attack on my character or the advantages my parents have worked to provide me with.

Nice passive-aggression there galileogirl.

Thank you (taking a bow) but I didn’t bring up guilt, unlike beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholdee.

You didn’t bring up guilt using the term itself, but I’m pretty sure telling me that I don’t know how lucky I am because I can’t see “some of the great, intelligent, creative, hungry for learning kids [you] see who live in tiny apartments with parents working multiple jobs at minimum wage and are in fear of illness or layoffs” is a guilt trip, or whatever synonym you’d like to come up with. That is definitely passive aggressive. And really, implying that what I spent on high school could’ve sent a disadvantaged youth to college? You go on thinking that you didn’t bring up guilt. If you’re so worried about that inner-city student going to college, why don’t you pay for it?

Why do you assume that I don’t?

If you honestly do drop thousands on someone not related to you out of pure altruism, all the more power to you. Hopefully, someday I’ll be as philanthropic and worldly and financially secure enough as you, and then I’ll be able to propel America’s bright, talented, and impoverished youth to bigger and brighter things. All that will happen, however, after I ensure that my children are given every educational advantage first, seeing as they are MY CHILDREN.

As with everything else financial security is relative. I grew up in a working class family unable to take a scholarship because of family reasons. As a divorced mother of a handicapped child, I managed in my 30’s to get an accounting degree in 3 years by managing a classload of up to 22 units while working 20–25 hrs/wk. After 12 years as an accountant, I decided to support public education by teaching. It took me almost 14 years teaching to earn as much as my last prebonus accounting salary.

In 2000 both my father and a friend died. The friend was a man that I had met in teacher training and we were hired at the same school at the same time. He dropped dead at the age of 50 at a school function where he was volunteering. I decided that he would contribute to the school as long as he would have taught, so I anonymously fund a scholarship in his name.

My Dad was the only person in his family to graduate from high school He was admitted to a teacher’s college with a full scholarship in Sept 1941. 6 years later he tried again on the GI Bill when I interrupted his education again. So 53 years later there are kids going to school in his honor with enough money to pay for their books.

It isn’t a fortune, about 6% of my take home pay but I am less than 3 years from retirement and wouldn’t like to live on soup and tea so I need to work on a retirement account and I pretty much have to cover classroom resources beyond the books. I guess I do what I can

Is that too passive aggressive or guilt inducing, if so, suck it up. Mosi public school teachers do it because they they believe in what they do, not for the holidays.

@Tits: They’re all our children.

Well kudos to you, and I’m glad you hold yourself in such high regard, taking the moral high ground and what not. Maybe every public school everywhere needs a bunch of clones of you so that the public school system will be instantly cured of all its deficiencies. The masses would flock from their private and parochial schools. All students would attend every single classes, everyone would get stellar grades, everyone would know how to use a comma correctly, and everyone will take cues from your set of moral standards regarding education. So here’s what I’ll do, galileogirl. I will go home today, liquefy my parents’ assets and put it all into the public education system. Then maybe I’ll be as good a person as you are, regardless of my spotty background in the hell that is the world of private school. Please, forgive my past. I did not know the foulness of my school.

“moral high ground”? Once again the labeling is coming from you. You ask, I answer. I do what I want to and expect everyone else does what they want to. However if you are being honest then good for you but Suze Orman would advise you to fund a retirement account, to put money aside for your child’s college education and have 8 mos expenses in a emergency fund.

Of course I’m not being honest; I’m not that ridiculously stupid about money management. I was being facetious. And once again, you may not have used the phrase “moral highit ground,” but by putting those stories out there, not to discount the wonderful lives those two men lived, but it’s all in the implications of your answers. Once again, very passive aggressive, and backhandedly trying to insinuate that I made the wrong choice by going to a better school and paying for it. Excuse me for trying to get the best education possible. It obviously worked though, because I do know what I’m talking about, and I do know how to use a comma. You do what you want, sure, but you certainly don’t expect others to do the same, seeing as you’ve been telling me this entire thread that my parents and I have done something wrong by choosing private schooling as opposed to the failing public school system. It is not my fault that the public school in my area is far from quality, and I will not be judged or told I was wrong for utilizing the resources available to me and receiving an education that has prepared me for college and the working world better than any public school could have. If you’re so insistent on having everyone receive the exact same education, regardless of means, then move to a communist country. Until then, I am finished with having you judging me, my school, and my parents’ choices, especially knowing nothing about my situation.

Nothing about being wrong I very clearly said lucky, you then question me about lucky and I reply. Then you challenge me to put my money where my mouth is and I explain that I already do. Then you say you are going to do something charitable and I congratulate you. Now that I have only posted honest answers to your challenges, you are namecalling. I honestly think you are right about withdrawing from the thread.

I’m not namecalling at all, I am defending myself against your judgment.

Before I do withdraw from this thread, I’d like make another point. In the private school, I was in a community that fostered learning and a positive environment. Regardless of the effort of the teachers, there were always the kids who were forced to be there and weren’t interested in doing well or contributing. While there were still a few of these kinds of students in my private school, the number was far less. The environment was far more conducive to learning, unlike my brother’s fourth grade class, where there was less learning and more chair throwing (true story). With the private schools, it was easier for the school to weed out students who weren’t interested in learning, rather than being forced into classes with people who don’t want to be there. The energy was better, the environment was positive, and students, faculty and parents alike were involved and interested. Most parents in the public school near me could care less. Almost all of my classmates were excited, interested, ambitious, and invested in their education. Yes, there are students like that in the public school system, but they are the minority, at least in my family’s experience in our local school. I wish all the best to the students who are in the public schools and are trying their best to take advantages of their education.

Maybe this was just the specific public school near me, but my parents chose to spend their money on an excellent school, rather than a larger house in a more affluent area. We don’t have a lot of money in the first place – like I said, only one of my four grandparents went to college (and he went on a GI Bill), two of them didn’t even graduate from high school. My maternal grandfather worked until he was 80+ years old. My parents made their choices and saved their money very carefully so that we could do what was best for us with it.

I was not, and my parents were not, willing to sacrifice my future, or my brother’s future, for the nebulous goal of public education. My family comes from a working class background, and my parents have earned the right to do what they choose with the money they have earned. My parents, similarly within a few years of retirement, are trying to save too, but are willing to do what they can in order to provide me with more advantages than they had. Isn’t that what all parents are trying to do?

There were also no discipline issues in my school, like there were in the public school.

When it all comes down to it, my parents chose what was best for my future, even though it didn’t align with our political philosophy perfectly.