The private schools for New York City’s moneyed elite are set to get even more exclusive.
The price tag for an education at top-tier institutions will reach new highs for the upcoming academic year, with tuition increases of as much as 5% and at least two schools eclipsing the $60,000-a-year mark, according to parents and notices seen by Bloomberg.
The cost of elite K-12 education in New York, one of the world’s most expensive cities, has nearly doubled in the last decade. According to data from the National Association of Independent Schools, the median tuition for the 2010-2011 school year was $33,933. The median tuition in New York City increased by 54.4% over the past decade, outpacing the national increase of 46.5%.
With fees increasing 3% to 5% a year, private school tuition was bound to exceed $60,000, said Robin Aronow, an educational consultant with School Search NYC. Some schools’ listed prices exclude expenses such as lunch and books, so the costs of attending them could end up being even higher, she said.
The rate of increase in school tuition, however, is below inflation — which hit 7.5% in January compared with a year earlier.
While private schools tried to keep down increases during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, demand has increased due to families returning to the city and some parents looking to switch over because of concerns about the state of public schools and their new admissions processes, Aronow said.
“There will always be families who can afford it and believe the education is worth it,” she said.
During the pandemic, some families went from being two-income households to one, and there were some temporary cutbacks in finance. Parents at Spence rebelled against tuition hikes last year, with more than 100 parents asking for a tuition freeze at the private school.