Wealthy Families and Financial Aid for Private School

I agree with Kim, that isn't something that I think people should get financial aid for.  I can understand if its a specialty school for someone with a disability or something like that, but not just a private school because you don't want your kid to go to public school.

Totally agree--if you make that amount of money, you can afford private school.  If it is a struggle at that income, then don't put your child in public school.

I have a good friend who both her and her Dh make 6 figures each.  She was complaining to me about their cell phone bill ($600 per month).  It was really, really hard for me to respond.  But I simply said, then cancel your service if you think you can't afford or get rid of some of the extras.  But really what I wanted to say was,"you make that amount of money and you are complaining to me about being in debt. Obviously, you aren't handling your finances very well."  It was so hard for me to sympathize with her and I didn't.

I got financial aid to go to the all-girl Catholic school I went to. I had to qualify scholastically, and I had to stay after school a certain number of days to help clean the classroom.  Because my parents were divorced & I lived w/ my mom, they only looked at her income, which was the lousy alimony that my Dad never raised from 1970 to 1998, and her income from working an early morning shift at a bakery.

My dad was a millionaire by the time I started high school. He paid the tuition. I have since donated money to the tuition assistance program back to the school.

Quote:

Originally Posted by calimari 

I got financial aid to go to the all-girl Catholic school I went to. I had to qualify scholastically, and I had to stay after school a certain number of days to help clean the classroom.  Because my parents were divorced & I lived w/ my mom, they only looked at her income, which was the lousy alimony that my Dad never raised from 1970 to 1998, and her income from working an early morning shift at a bakery.

 

My dad was a millionaire by the time I started high school. He paid the tuition. I have since donated money to the tuition assistance program back to the school.

That is such a great thing you did!   Paying it forward and helping other kids.

Personally if I had the funds I would send the kids to private. More of a I don't think that the public system challenges kids. Private gives the access to many programs that the public system has cut.  I guess you also need to put the article into perspective with the COL of where they are located. My areas private schools are about $5000 a year. People making 200K plus just don't live in this area. So if the school is in an area where the median house price is a million plus. Yes a 200K earning family might need assistance. But you would also expect better public schools in those areas.  I have looked at schools in my state, test scores in my state and is it any wonder that Medina (Bill Gates Neighborhood) has the best rated public schools.  The article gives no real context to where these schools are located I know that the most exclusive private school in my county is under $15K 

Still we can't afford Private so we are giving the public ago but I keep private or the home school option in the back of my mind.

I didn't read the article but I can tell what it is about from the posts.  When we moved here to Utah we looked for a school similar to ds' Montessori and couldn't find a quality one.  We decided to send him to a private school which is not a Montessori but uses a lot of the same principles.  Unfortunately it is very costly, and dh makes no where near $300K a year, not even half.

I actually have been stressing about this recently.  We bought a smaller house with a smaller mortgage, it's not like the bigger newer one in our old development, but you sacrifice.  Moving here is more expensive in some ways than where we were.  Percentage wise, even though dh is making a bit more, it is costing us more to live here, and ds school bill his doubled.  When he goes into 8th grade we are going to have the normal tuition increase Plus it will go up an automatic $5000, and then we'll be paying for books.  Still, we sacrifice.

Dh and I had a long talk last night.  In his new position, certain things are 'expected' that he do...go out to eat at lunch; golfing every week, going out to eat afterward, skiing.  He enjoys all of these.  The problem is, with ds' tuition and our expenses increased, and not pay increased all that much - the money has to come from somewhere.  Last night I crunched numbers for 4 hours!  I went over each and every expense and decided where we needed to cut in order to keep our financial head above water.

It was not easy to tell dh we had enough money for him to golf, but not to go out to eat afterwards.  It was not easy to tell him that skiing for him is out of the question if he also wants a shed and to re-do the bathroom that sorely needs it.  It was not easy to tell him our vacation $$ is now cut in half - yet - we ALL have to sacrifice if we are going to continue to live here, and I told him as much.

I am so proud of dh - he is very handy, and told me he can buy an unfinished vanity for the bathroom and stain it.   That he can do a lot of work himself.  He doesn't need to ski.  I told him our vacations to family and on our own will have to wait until I go part time again.  We worked it out.  We are going to sacrifice so ds' can go to the school he is doing well at and loves.  That is just life.  If you can't afford it to do it all, you make priorities.  Ds' education is our #1 priority right now.  And that's just the way that it is, everyone has to make choices.