Can you put a price on education?

Stepping in as “Admissions Director” while ours is out on maternity leave has been a wonderful opportunity that I’m grateful to be able to experience. There’s nothing like meeting prospective families for the first time. They come to their first tour of the school prepared with inquisitive questions about every facet of the building and the learning that happens inside. They are interviewing us as much as we are interviewing them. Let’s face it, choosing a school for your child is not an easy task…. Think about all of the choices… public, private, parochial? Will my child thrive in a small or large classroom environment? Do I choose a school that is close to home or am I willing to make a drive? Do they offer extracurricular activities? What does your school offer that another doesn't? Will my family fit in? Do you have extended care/tutoring services? Do I choose to pay tuition when I pay taxes?

In an interesting article by Sarah P. Daignault of the National Business Officers Association (a professional association for independent school business officers), she aims to tackle the age old question of Why Are Independent Schools So Expensive? And Are They Worth It? In the article, Daignault breaks down Independent school tuition explaining all of its components, which can include: salaries and benefits, classroom supplies, administrative costs, facility enhancements and maintenance, financial aid, auxiliary services and more; all things necessary to run a top notch educational institution. While touring with prospective parents, I give all of my reasons why an Oakhill education exceeds the cost of the tuition, but I always get the feeling that if I had a personal testimonial it would really bring all of these ideals, that I know to be true, to life. One day, I received an email from a past Oakhill family. I always love to get updates on our students and their many successes once they've moved beyond our walls. This family was really able to “quantify” their Oakhill experience and put it into words that I wish I could share with every prospective that walks through our doors.

Dear Oakhill, 

Joel Roney (Oakhill 1998-2007, Early Learners through seventh grade) is going to Drury University in Springfield this fall.  He will major in Theatre, Biology and Arts Administration (a business major for the arts) and minor in Spanish.  Yes, all of this is possible with his 28 hours of college credit from his high school IB curriculum and three classes over the summers at Maple Woods.  Why does he want to do all of this?  Joel says:  because he can.  This is the same reason he gave for taking an extra high level IB class (the very hard engineering math with only three people in the class).  I guess it is the Mt. Everest phenomenon.  See what Oakhill creates?  I feel fortunate I talked him out of the math minor! 

Now for some fun Oakhill math!  Figure $8,000 per year for K-7 (8 years)=$64,000.  The amount I paid for Early Learners, Pre-School and Pre-K would have been paid elsewhere, if not at Oakhill.  Tuition was not that much in the late ‘90s, but let’s use it for the sake of argument.  Joel got Drury’s Dean’s Scholarship for $11,000, Drury IB Scholarship for $3,000, Drury Theatre Scholarship for $3,500 and the Bright Flight for $1,750.  That is a total of $19,250 yearly over 4 years which = $77,000.  Joel is covering $77,000 of his own education.  Tuition at Drury is $21,000 per year, so he will cover all but $1,750 of his tuition yearly.  (Room and Board seems to be about the same at the colleges we checked out, so that’s why I did not include it in my calculation- that and the fact that I will buy less food at home and the water bill will be much lower). 

So considering the Roney family and our #2 son, we came out more than $13,000 to the good for an education that instilled in Joel a love for learning, a strong work ethic and confidence that he can accomplish great things!  Honestly, the intangibles alone are worth the 64K!  

Sincerely,

Melinda Roney

More good reading:
Values Added: The Lifelong Returns of an Independent School Education,www.nais.org/files/PDFs/NELSReport_2-3-04_FINAL.pdf.