Why do people say tuition is expensive?

silverlining3

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:13 pm

When a school was raising every year tuition fee, a parent said, I wish my job would give me a raise every year.

So perhaps according to their income it's a fortune?!

And as many said, it also depends where you come from.

amother

Pewter

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:14 pm

Full tuition for boys in Lakewood is more like $7-8500, plus building fees. It's a lot of $ once you have a few kids. I don't complain because there's no alternative- we need schools for our kids, and this is the cheapest tuition around (other than chassidish schools and in israel), but there's no denying it is expensive.

watergirl

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:15 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I'm sending my son to school next year and was told that (being as most schools in Lakewood aren't likely to ruin my kid) one of my top considerations should be affordable tuition.

But now I'm wondering... What's all the hype?? Here's what I'm paying for my little ones:
Newborn - $8,500
Older 2s - $4,500
4 year old - $3,500

And in a previous daycare I sent to, I was paying about $2,000 more per child!

How is $4,000 or $6,000 considered such an enormous fee? Seems pretty reasonable to me.

***
ETA: While we're on the topic, anyone from Lakewood know which boys schools are on the cheaper end?

Generally, tuition increases significantly starting at age 5. Not sure if thats the case in Lakewood where you send. You need to make sure you know how much you will be paying for elementary school.

icedcoffee

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:18 pm

The schools in my area can run $25k-45k per kid before discounts. It isn't that hard to realize that prices aren't the same for everyone around the world. Also, for families with 8 kids, $6k each is significant.

amother

Yellow

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:21 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

No, it's not obvious to me, because I live in Lakewood, so most people I talk to are actually paying Lakewood tuition - and yet they make it sound like having a kid turn 5 is one of the biggest financial disasters possible.

Maybe I'm taking their complaints too seriously, and their remarks are similar to those about their lack of sleep or whatever else they have on their minds.

Maybe people in Lakewood complain about the (relatively) reasonable cost of tuition because there are many kollel families that rely on 1 income. So for those families, paying $7000 seems like alot of tuition.

keym

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:24 pm

It's the line by line items.
So let's say 7k for boys tuition (average).
Then 300 book fee
200 registration fee
300 mandatory bus fee
500 building fee (5k divided over 10 years)
400 mandatory dinner fee
We're talking Lakewood. So another 250 for mandatory "Cheder Camp"
If you work, then 550 day camp
That ends up being 9500. And doesn't include lunch fees, school supplies, trip and party fees and other extracurricular activities

zaq

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:31 pm

Expensive and affordable are relative terms and depend on your means. What’s affordable for a family of four with 500K income is not for a family of six with 75K income. And of course prices vary from place to place. Why do you imagine, OP, that everyone is as comfortably situated as you?

amother

White

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:36 pm

I don't know, I'm paying more than $70,000 for 3 kids.

Seems pretty expensive to me.

But, I also believe you can tell someone's values by how they spend their money and how they spend their time.

I'm ok, that two of my three biggest line items are my kids' Jewish education and maaseh.

amother

Coral

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:40 pm

I live in queens, and tuition here is at least 10,000 per child. That is definitely something to talk about!
Lakewood tuition is known to be lower, however even if it is 5,000 on average per child, if you have 7 children in school at a time that comes out to a considerable amount per year! plus it goes up for highschool etc.
Is your four year old in a real school already? and its going to be 3500 per year all the way through with no discounts/scholarships? Thats great for you!
(although it does sound like others in lakewood are paying more in the 7000 range, so it could be those people who are talking about expensive tuition are sending to those schools. Sounds like not all schools in lakewood charge the same tuition if yours is 3500 and others are 7000).

amother

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:56 pm

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

Contrary to popular belief, Jewish education doesn’t stop at the corner of Lakewood and Brooklyn.

Y'all, I'M SORRY FOR ASKING!!! None of this is obvious to me as I am clueless about actual rates in Lakewood; I only know what I've heard so far which is just a small sampling of the full range.

I don't in any way think Lakewood is the center of the universe. I just want to know what is and isn't happening in the town I live. Should I be sorry that I live in Lakewood? Should I move back to Ireland?

Why can't a girl ask an innocent question? My gosh.

amother

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:57 pm

pause wrote:

Because for most people it's their biggest expense. If you have 1-2 children, it's the second biggest expense (after rent/mortgage).

Thank you for this! That's a helpful perspective (and good to keep in mind!)

amother

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 12:59 pm

keym wrote:

Here's the thing.
One boy in school- 6k a year plus fees, building fees and daycamps because you work comes out to around 9k a year.
Thats not horrible.
Multiply it by 6. That's 50k a year.
And that means either you or your husband is only working 9-3, otherwise you need to add aftercare, clubs, morning babysitters, etc.
And Mesivta boys is close to double that (around 10k).
It's not that tuition is so expensive. It's that it is proportionately the largest family expense.
Average rent is only 24k a year for a large 5 bedroom townhouse (2k a month).

Got it. Thanks!

Frumme

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:00 pm

keym wrote:

Don't forget the school uniforms, which can of course can only be bought at Land's End for a pretty penny. And now with covid, technology fees are more abundant than before. The list goes on and on... Sigh.

amother

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:02 pm

keym wrote:

Um. Wow. You just listed $3,000 of hidden fees. Can't Believe It

keym

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:22 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Um. Wow. You just listed $3,000 of hidden fees. Can't Believe It

That's my point. It's not hidden fees. It's just not bundled in the tuition price.
And daycare and playgroup in a daycare center is $4000 for 12 months all inclusive. Tuition is $6-7000 for 10/11 months. Plus daycamp and Cheder Camp.
That's the point.
It's not so much that tuition is much much more than daycare. It's that daycare and playgroup are a certain price but that's it. Not so school.

Additionally as another poster mentioned, if you're looking for basic babysitting and playgroup, you can get 9:15-2:15 on Bais Faiga schedule for around $400/month for a baby and $250-$275/month for a 2 yr old and 4 yr old.
The price jump to 6/7k is big.

amother

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:28 pm

keym wrote:

I need more hours (which school provides, to be fair), so I send to a daycare for base hours - and for a baby, that can be as much as 14k a year. The numbers I listed in my OP are for 10 months. But yes, they are all inclusive, and that's for sure a lot easier (even if it would come out to the same much) from a budgeting point of view.

amother

Silver

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:32 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Its a sensitive subject because of the frustration many feel about it and you spun it into a 'hey, whats the big fuss' kind of issue.

If u look at anything with blinders, you never get the whole picture. Even if tuition is 'only' $6K a year, thats for one child. Multiply that by 5 kids, and you have $30k a year. That's probably the largest or second largest expense of the middle class family. And there is nothing you can really do to mitigate it. If my rent or mortgage is too high, I can downsize or move. But what can I do about tuition?

You also have to consider the average income. Even if one earns 100k a year, deduct taxes, tuition and mortgage and there is nothing left to live on.

I may be wrong, but I get the impression you are either quite well off, or are being supported in some way.

keym

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:34 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

If you need more hours, then you're gonna have to hire babysitters and clubs for elementary school kids. Boys go from 9-2 or 3 in primary depending on the school. Some schools offer clubs to 3 or 4 that you pay extra for.
Girls schools go 9:15-3:15 for primary. 9:15-11:30 on Fridays.
That doesn't include the erev and Isru vacations, midwinter, Chanukah.
And don't forget snow days and late starts.

amother

Mint

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 2:01 pm

What do you mean, it's not expensive? Not everyone is making $250K+ a year. If you are a middle income family then tuition chews up half your takehome pay.

I really don't know how most people manage it. I get that in some families both parents are working professionals and maybe their combined income is in the $200K plus range. But what about the rest of us?