I believe Bush hopes to get families a 1,500 tax credit / voucher. Is that in and of itself enough to send a kid to a private school? Any Dopers send their kid to private school? Care to share how much it costs? (notice I didn’t ask if you wanted to share the cost :))
No need to get into the economic effects on the price of tuition right now, or who it helps and who it hurts. Save that for GD. Thanks!
[sub]Mods: I am sorry if this is too IMHOish. I think of it as a question with a clear, concrete answer. But, as it is also a poll, I’ll know where to look for it.
In Canada, 6 to 15K per annum. This is not tax deductible and is in addition to the your public school taxes (that must still be paid even if your kids don’t go there).
Obviously, it’s going to vary greatly by region, snootiness of the school, etc. Also, if it’s a church-run private school you may or may not get a break if you’re a member of the church/denomination.
As a very basic example, I note Christian Elementary School in Springfield, Illinois. Tuition is in the neighborhood of $2000 per year ($1000 per semester), member or otherwise. You’ll get a break if you have more than one child enrolled, as in: $2000/year for the first kid, $1400/year each additional kid.
DISCLAIMER: I do not have any children, so I don’t know from experience.
Sure, I expect that. I would expect that even here in DC there will be quite a spread of numbers. That and price breaks too are par for the course, but I am hoping to get a good sampling of costs. Thanks so far.
Just out of curiosity, I visited my alma mater’s website. It’s a private high school in New York City. When I attended in the 1970’s the tuition was $3,000 per year. The current tuition is $20,500. This is no joke. It’s not a boarding school.
Let me clarify, or at least illustrate why I added what you so eloquently termed a “duhhh” statement.
In Canada, we can opt to have our school tax dollars go to Catholic schools or public schools. The former are, IMHO, not entirely dissimilar to private schools. It is not a stretch, then, that in some countries the option exists to direct your school tax dollars to other novel systems.
Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth RI, charges somewhere around $26,000 a year. So a tax break of $1,5000, while it would be nice, wouldn’t do a whole lot.
Most schools in my area (Lansing, Michigan) charge anywhere from $1,500 to up to $4,500 (I think) for a local Catholic school.
We actually have quite a number of private schools in the area but I don’t find their prices to be all that unreasonable.
The church I go to has a school (very good one too, from what I’ve heard); you need to have a recommendation from a pastor (don’t specifically need to attend the church that sponsors the school, but do need to regularly attend some church) and then price is based on what grade you are in and, I think, your income.
The private schools in Nashville were considerably more: I think the highest price one, very snooty, was around $10,000 a year or more. Catholic, run by Dominican Sisters, I’m pretty sure. All-girl high school. Waiting list up the wazoo.
I grew up going to private schools, as do my children.
For me, I honestly couldn’t say how much my dad paid for elementary and junior high. When I got to high school (late 80’s), I was in charge of paying my own bill, which was $3000 a year, plus $500 for registration. If I stayed in the dorm, it would have been $7000 a year. I don’t know if the price has gone up, but I would imagine it has.
I qualify for a subsidy for my childrens tuition, but I believe that full price for elementary school is $1500 a year per student (with a percentage discount for additional siblings), plus a $150 registration fee.
This is in Cdn money, and as KarlGauss pointed out, in addition to supporting the public schools.
I attend a private school with no religious affiliation and no boarding (yet) in South Florida. Tuition runs $10,000/year approximately for the high school; I’m not certain what the tuition is in the middle and lower schools. There are approximately 200 students in the 9-12 grades, and less than 800 total. Facilities include two gymnasiums, a dining hall, a library, an auditorium, outdoor 1/4 mi. track, soccer field and basketball courts. The student body is made up of almost exclusively WASPs, just FYI.
I got an advertisement in the mail, showing some of the local Catholic schools. Prices ranged from about 4500 to 6000 dollars a year. This is Long Island, New York.
It also varies greatly depending on whether it’s primary or secondary school. Most recent numbers I could find from the Department of Ed (I didn’t want an obviously biased source) was from the 1993/4 school year.
School level Total Catholic Other religious Nonsectarian
These are weighted based on the number of children enrolled in each school. I’m not sure if they took into account discounts for siblings enrolled at the same school.
I know the formatting is a little funky–sorry about that. My guess would be that tuitions have gone up slightly since then. Based on these numbers, the $1500 would be almost enough to send a child to the average catholic elementary school but any other form of school would require supplements from the parents.
So far it doesn’t sound like fifteen hundred is going to help a lot of people. Anyone know of less prestigious, cheaper schools? Are there a lot of them? Wonder if the tax credit will open up new markets for lower end (cost-wise) schools.
Sorry, should not have waited so long to hit ‘submit.’ Catholic / religious schools appear to be the less expensive schools. Is that going to be the predominant choice for parents then? I would assume that religious schools are subsidized by the church, but secular schools have to charge a bit more to stand on their own.
That’s only 1/2 true in my case. The private elementary school 2 of my kids attend is a religious school but is not subsidized by the local church or denomination. The school itself is non-denominational. They currently rent space from a local church while in the process of building a school campus. Tuition for my 2 kids is ~$6000/yr, which includes the multi-kid discount.
The private preschool that my other child attends is also religious and uses the facilities of a local church (same denomination, different church). I suspect that it is subsidized by the church in which it is housed. Tuition there is ~$1000/yr.
$1500/pear would not cover my tuition bills, but would certainly help. (Anwer to corollary question: Yes, it’s worth it. The level of education, even science and math, is far greater than the local public schools.)
My wife is a teacher in a private school. Our two kids go there. The tuition runs about $4500/yr. Thankfully, she gets a discount for being an employee AND for having more than one kid there. My daughter graduates this year. Elsewhere, the fees run from $3500 - 10,000.