How to Afford Private School
Parents choose private schools for a lot of reasons. Maybe their local public school is not meeting their needs. Maybe they want a religious education for their child. Maybe they prefer a different instructional approach for their child.
Does one of these describe your situation? Maybe sending your child to private school is the right choice.
I know, I know, I know what you’re going to say. “Private school is too expensive.” But is it? Let’s walk through a couple of questions and see if private school might be a viable option for your family.
Finding Private Schools in Your Area
There may be more private schools in your area than you know. According to researchers at the Brookings Institution, 92 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a private school. In some states, like California, 95 percent of residents live within 5 miles of a private school. It’s 95 percent in Massachusetts, 96 percent in New Jersey, and 90 percent in Florida.
To find a school, you can use a tool like Great Schools. Just type in your ZIP Code and refine the search to only look for private schools, and a curated list (along with reviews from other parents!) will appear. When I typed in my ZIP Code (in South Kansas City, Missouri) a whopping 65 private schools popped up within five miles.
FIND PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN MY AREA
Average Private School Cost
There is a persistent misconception about how much private school actually costs. Maybe folks have watched Dead Poets Society or Gossip Girl too many times and think that all private schools are elite institutions that only the wealthiest Americans can afford. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there are lots of lower-cost private schools spread all across the country.
As part of our research program here at EdChoice, we survey private schools in selected states, and one of the questions that we ask is how much it costs for students to attend the school. In Texas, the median combined tuition and fees of private schools is $6,000 (meaning that 50 percent of schools cost less than that!). In South Carolina, its $5,210. In Nebraska, it’s only $2,000. Clearly, there are lots of lower cost options out there.
What financial aid is available?
Just looking at tuition and fees might overstate the actual cost for a child to attend a private school. Schools offer financial aid for students, primarily driven by parental income.
The National Association of Independent Schools has a great resource on seeking financial aid for private education. NAIS represents private schools that are more expensive than average, but their advice works across the board. Financial aid ranges from grants for families that can’t afford full sticker price to merit-based scholarships to tuition payment plans and all things in between. Their key bit of advice is worth taking to heart: Apply, apply, apply. The worst a school can do is tell you is no.
Determining if Private School Is Worth the Cost
You can’t put a price tag on all facets of an education. If you’re a religious person who wants to bring up your children in your beliefs and values, its tough to account for that in monetary terms. Having students in a safe environment where they feel loved, appreciated and respected doesn’t show up in easily measured metrics either. That said, a solid K–12 education has long-term repercussions for a young person’s life.
In the short term, a strong high school career can set students up for more financial support in college, the cost of which seems to be rising unavoidably. In the longer term, students who have received a better education make more money, are healthier, are less likely to commit crimes and experience a host of other positive outcomes. If you think a private school is a better fit, you should think about the long-term potential benefits.
Do you live in a state with a private school choice program, and do you qualify?
In addition to school-based financial aid, numerous states offer support for children who want to attend private schools. This takes one of four forms:
- Private school vouchers: Some states and Washington, D.C., have programs where funds that a public district school would have spent on your child had they attended are instead given to you, the parent, in the form of a voucher to pay partial or full tuition for your child’s education in a private school. State departments of education or other state government entities are often responsible for running these programs.
- Tuition tax-credit scholarship programs: Some states allow taxpaying citizens to receive full or partial tax credits when they donate to nonprofits that provide K–12 private school scholarships. Parents like you work with those independent nonprofit organizations to secure a scholarship for your child.
- Education savings accounts (ESAs): A growing number of states deposit public funds into government-authorized savings accounts for parents to use on various educational expenses. Those funds—often distributed to families via debit card—can cover private school tuition and fees, online learning programs, private tutoring, community college costs, higher education expenses and other approved customized learning services and materials.
- Tax credits and deductions: A few states allow parents to receive tax credits or deductions for approved educational expenses you have already paid for out-of-pocket, including private school tuition.
Check out the list below to find out if your state falls into one of these categories.
Note: The eligibility criteria for each of these programs vary. Some are universal, meaning they are open to all K–12 students. Some are solely for students with special needs. Some are only for children zoned to attend schools that fail to meet state testing benchmarks. Others have household income limits.
The lawmakers who make these programs don’t always make eligibility requirements for these programs easy to understand, but our team at EdChoice has created easy to follow eligibility quizzes for all of the private school choice programs in America. Be sure to click through to them below to test whether your family would qualify.
Alabama
Alabama has two private school choice programs, a tax-credit scholarship and a refundable tax credit.
–Education Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Alabama’s Education Scholarship Program is around $5,400.
–Accountability Act of 2013 Parent-Taxpayer Refundable Tax Credits
This program is basically a rebate. It allows families who already footed the bill for private school tuition to get a refund for a portion of that cost when they file their taxes. The average value of Alabama’s refundable tax credit is around $2,400.
Alaska
Alaska does not have a private school choice program.
Arizona
Arizona has five school choice programs, one ESA and four tax-credit scholarships.
–Empowerment Scholarship Accounts
This program is an education savings account. The average projected value of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program is $12,400. Keep in mind a higher percentage of students using this program are students with special needs, who typically get more funding than students without special needs, so that might make the average higher than what a child without special needs might receive.
–Original Individual Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Arizona’s Original tax-credit scholarship program is about $1,700.
–Low-Income Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Arizona’s Low-Income tax-credit scholarship program is about $1,900.
–“Switcher” Individual Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Arizona’s “Switcher” scholarship program is about $1,360.
–Lexie’s Law for Disabled and Displaced Students Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Arizona’s Lexie’s Law scholarship program is about $4,700.
Arkansas
Arkansas has one school voucher program.
The average voucher value for Arkansas’s Succeed Scholarship Program is around $6,700.
California
California does not have a private school choice program.
Colorado
Colorado does not have a private school choice program.
Connecticut
Connecticut does not have a private school choice program.
Delaware
Delaware does not have a private school choice program.
District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.)
Washington, D.C., has one school voucher program.
–Opportunity Scholarship Program
The average voucher value for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program is about $9,600.
Florida
Florida has four school choice programs, one ESA, one voucher and two tax-credit scholarships.
–Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value for Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program is about $6,000.
This program is an education savings account for students with special needs. The average account value for Florida’s Gardiner Scholarship Program is about $10,300.
-John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program
The average voucher value for Florida’s McKay scholarship program is $7,300.
This program is for students who have been victims of bullying in their public schools. The program does not launch until the 2018–19 school year, and it allows kids to transfer not just to private schools, but also public schools outside of their district. The maximum scholarship value for Florida’s Hope Scholarship Program is $6,700.
Georgia
Georgia has two school choice programs, a voucher and a tax-credit scholarship.
–Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program
The average voucher value for the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program is about $5,600.
–Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit
The average scholarship value for Georgia’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit is about $3,800.
Hawaii
Hawaii does not have a private school choice program.
Idaho
Idaho does not have a private school choice program.
Illinois
Illinois has two school choice programs, a tax-credit scholarship and an individual tax credit.
The maximum scholarship value for the Illinois Invest in Kids Program is $12,973.
–Tax Credits for Educational Expenses
The average value of Illinois’s educational expenses tax credit is about $260.
Indiana
Indiana has three school choice programs, one voucher, one tax-credit scholarship and one tax deduction.
The average voucher value of Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program is about $4,000.
–School Scholarship Tax Credit
The average scholarship value of Indiana’s School Scholarship Tax Credit program is about $2,000.
–Private School/Homeschool Deduction
The average value of Indiana’s Private School/Homeschool Deduction is about $1,800.
Iowa
Iowa has two school choice programs, a tax-credit scholarship and an individual tax credit.
–School Tuition Organization Tax Credit
The average scholarship value for this program is about $1,600.
–Tuition and Textbook Tax Credit
The average credit amount for this program is about $120.
Kansas
Kansas has one school choice program, a tax-credit scholarship.
–Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program
The average scholarship value of Kansas’s Tax Credit for Low Income Students Scholarship Program is about $2,300.
Kentucky
Kentucky does not have a private school choice program.
School Choice Programs in Louisiana
Louisiana has four school choice programs, two vouchers, one tax-credit scholarship and one individual tax deduction.
–Louisiana Scholarship Program
The average voucher value for the Louisiana Scholarship Program is about $5,900.
–School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities
The average voucher value for Louisiana’s School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities is about $2,300.
–Tuition Donation Credit Program
The average scholarship value for Louisiana’s Tuition Donation Credit Program is about $4,100.
–Elementary and Secondary School Tuition Deduction
The average value of Louisiana’s Elementary and Secondary School Tuition Deduction program is about $4,000.
Maine
Maine has one school choice program: town tuitioning, which is like a voucher.
The maximum voucher value for Maine’s Town Tuitioning Program is $8,771 for grades K–8 and $10,887 for grades 9–12.
Maryland
Maryland has one school choice program, a voucher.
–Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today (BOOST) Program
The average voucher value for Maryland’s BOOST program is about $2,300.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts does not have a private school choice program.
Michigan
Michigan does not have a private school choice program.
Minnesota
Minnesota has two school choice programs, a tax credit and a tax deduction.
The average value of Minnesota’s K–12 Education Credit is about $250.
The average value of Minnesota’s Education Deduction is about $1,150.
Mississippi
Mississippi has three school choice programs, two vouchers and one ESA.
–Dyslexia Therapy Scholarship for Students with Dyslexia Program
The average voucher value of Mississippi’s dyslexia scholarship program is about $5,000.
–Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Program
The average value for Mississippi’s ESA—the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Program—is about $6,500.
–Nate Rogers Scholarship for Students with Disabilities Program
Because the other programs above are more popular and more empowering for families of students with disabilities, this program has no participants currently. The maximum voucher value for Mississippi’s Nate Rogers scholarship program is equal to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program base student cost, i.e., the funding amount provided by the state to public schools.
Missouri
Missouri does not have a private school choice program.
Montana
Montana has one school choice program, a tax-credit scholarship.
–Tax Credits for Contributions to Student Scholarship Organizations
The average value of Montana’s tax-credit scholarship program is about $500.
Nebraska
Nebraska does not have a private school choice program.
Nevada
Nevada has two school choice programs, one tax-credit scholarship and one ESA.
-Educational Choice Scholarship Program
The projected average scholarship value of Nevada’s Educational Choice Scholarship Program is about $4,500.
-Education Savings Accounts
Unfortunately, this program is not yet operational. State lawmakers have yet to secure a funding stream for it, though thousands of parents have applied. The average base account value for Nevada’s Education Savings Accounts would be about $5,100.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire has two school choice programs, one voucher and one tax-credit scholarship.
The average scholarship value for New Hampshire’s Education Tax Credit Program is $2,150.
When students are tuitioned at public schools, the sending town pays the receiving school district or private school an amount equal to the receiving school’s expenses of operation, as estimated by the state board of education the preceding year. That figure is calculated separately for elementary, junior high and high schools. Operation costs do not include the transportation of “tuitioning” students.
New Jersey
New Jersey does not have a private school choice program.
New Mexico
New Mexico does not have a private school choice program.
New York
New York does not have a private school choice program.
North Carolina
North Carolina has three school choice programs, two vouchers and one ESA.
-Special Education Scholarship Grants for Children with Disabilities
The average voucher value of North Carolina’s Special Education Scholarship Grants is about $6,500.
The projected average voucher value for North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarships is about $4,000.
-Personal Education Savings Accounts
The maximum value for North Carolina’s Personal Education Savings Accounts is $9,000.
North Dakota
North Dakota does not have a private school choice program.
Ohio
Ohio has five school choice programs, all vouchers.
–Cleveland Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Cleveland’s Scholarship Program is about $4,600.
The average voucher value of Ohio’s Autism Scholarship Program is about $22,750.
–Educational Choice Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Ohio’s Educational Choice Scholarship Program, often called the “EdChoice” scholarship, is about $4,250.
–Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Ohio’s Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program is about $9,800.
–Income-Based Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Ohio’s Income-Based Scholarship Program is about $4,000.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma has two school choice programs, one voucher and one tax-credit scholarship.
–Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities
The projected average voucher value of Oklahoma’s Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships is about $6,200.
–Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarships
The average value of Oklahoma’s Equal Opportunity Education Scholarships is about $1,800.
Oregon
Oregon does not have a private school choice program.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has two school choice programs, both tax-credit scholarships.
-Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program
The average value of Pennsylvania’s Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program is about $2,700.
–Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program
The average scholarship value of Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program is about $1,700.
Rhode Island
Rhode Island has one school choice program, a tax-credit scholarship.
–Tax Credits for Contributions to Scholarship Organizations
The average scholarship value of Rhode Island’s tax-credit scholarship program is about $3,700.
South Carolina
South Carolina has two school choice programs, one tax-credit scholarship and one individual tax credit.
–Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children
The average scholarship value of South Carolina’s Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children is about $4,800.
–Refundable Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children
South Carolina’s Refundable Educational Credit for Exceptional Needs Children program is basically a rebate. It allows parents who have already paid for private school out of their own pockets a tax credit for a maximum of $11,000 per student for educational expenses.
South Dakota
South Dakota has one school choice program, a tax-credit scholarship.
–Partners in Education Tax Credit Program
The average scholarship value of South Dakota’s Partners in Education Tax Credit Program is about $750.
Tennessee
Tennessee has one school choice program, an ESA.
-Individualized Education Account Program
The average value of Tennesee’s Individualized Education Accounts is about $6,700.
Texas
Texas does not have a private school choice program.
Utah
Utah has one school choice program, a voucher.
–Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Utah’s Carson Smith Special Needs Scholarship Program is about $5,900.
Vermont
Vermont has one school choice program: town tuitioning, which is like a voucher.
The average voucher value of Vermont’s Town Tuitioning Program is about $13,150.
Virginia
Virginia has one school choice program, a tax-credit scholarship.
–Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits Program
The average scholarship value of Virginia’s Education Improvement program is about $3,100.
Washington
Washington does not have a private school choice program.
West Virginia
West Virginia does not have a private school choice program.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin has five school choice programs, four vouchers and one tax deduction.
–Milwaukee Parental Choice Program
The average voucher value for Milwaukee’s Parental Choice Program is about $7,500.
–Parental Private School Choice Program (Racine)
The average voucher value of Racine, Wisconsin’s Parental School Choice Program is about $7,450.
–Parental Choice Program (Statewide)
The average voucher value for Wisconsin’s statewide Parental Choice Program is about $7,500.
–Special Needs Scholarship Program
The average voucher value of Wisconsin’s Special Needs Scholarship Program is about $12,100.
–K–12 Private School Tuition Deduction
The average tax deduction value of Wisconsin’s K–12 Private School Tuition Deduction program is about $4,900.
Wyoming
Wyoming does not have a private school choice program.
Tying it All Together
There are lots and lots of options to help parents pay for a private K–12 education for their children. Some come from schools themselves, either in schools working to keep tuition and fees as low as possible or offering financial aid directly. Some come from states, which are increasingly deciding to help families finance a private education for their children. We know families overwhelmingly prefer private education to public schools or other options. We also know that far more families in America can afford private education than they think, and we hope you’ll explore all of the options out there as you seek the right fit for your child in elementary school, middle school and high school.
