Tuition fees at private schools in Hawaii continue to rise

Most private schools in Hawaii are raising tuition again for the upcoming school year, bowing to pressures from rising operating costs, pandemic-related spending and record inflation.

According to survey data from the nonprofit Hawai’i Association for Independent Schools, the average annual tuition for 92 member private schools for this fall is $12,997 — 3.9% higher than last year and 28% higher than the average of $10,159 dollars in 2019-2020, the last full school year before the pandemic.

Honolulu is the district with the highest average tuition at $15,843; Kauai is the lowest at $8,586. The three most expensive non-specialty private schools — the Punahou School, the Mid-Pacific Institute and the ‘Iolani School — will charge over $27,000 for the coming year, about 4% more than last year.

However, Hawaii is expected to continue to maintain an exceptionally high proportion of students attending private schools, as it has for decades. Currently, the percentage is nearly 17%, said Philip J. Bossert, executive director of the association. That’s nearly double the national average of 9%, according to federal data.

For the 2020-2021 school year, the first full school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, most local private schools refrained from significantly increasing tuition “both because they would be online for the foreseeable future and because of massive layoffs — you thought.” , many parents just couldn’t afford it,” said Bossert, whose Hawaii Association of Independent Schools has 100 member schools with nearly 37,000 students.

Schools have also ramped up their financial aid offerings as the pandemic has put extraordinary strain on many families, he said.

But starting in the 2021-2022 school year, when both private and public schools almost everywhere returned to in-person learning, the equipment, materials and staff needed to contain the spread of the coronavirus increased operating costs at many schools, Bossert said.

Punahou, for example, spent millions “to hire extra staff so their classrooms could get smaller … and also risk management staff, and buy extra equipment and tons of extra masks and hand sanitizer,” Bossert said. “’Iolani put up tents all over campus so they could move the classrooms, split them up, and let the kids eat outside instead of in the cafeteria. They installed an electronic badge system so they “knew who was at each desk and lab table” to facilitate contact tracing.

Now, private schools tend to direct their limited fundraising streams to urgent priorities like raises, construction and repairs, and financial support has been scaled back slightly at some schools, Bossert said.

Financial support increases

At the Mid-Pacific Institute in Manoa, “like every school and business in the state, we’re dealing with the incredible inflation that’s going on all around us,” said Leigh Fitzgerald, vice president of academic affairs. “The cost of supplies, the cost of transportation, the cost of everything to keep the campus running, from electricity to water to facility management … have all gone up.”

She added that Mid-Pacific is focused on teacher pay and professional development because “we know many of our educators have been very busy over the past two years in the pandemic.”

In recognition of the strain the pandemic and inflation are also taking on families, Fitzgerald said Mid-Pacific has increased its financial support to $5 million, and the typical award there is about $10,000 — just over one-third of the $28,611 tuition.

The mother of an ‘Iolani student interviewed by Honolulu Star-Advertiser says she is grateful for that school’s financial support, which has saved the family thousands of dollars — without it, she said, her daughter could attend the prominent private school not visit in Honolulu. To make ends meet, the mother still works 60 hours a week between jobs.

“Saving a lot of money — I drive an old car and we don’t travel,” she said. “These are TV nights, not expensive movies. … But it’s worth it because it puts my daughter on a better path to greater success in life.” She asked that her identity be withheld because of the sensitivity and competitive nature of receiving financial aid.

In response to a request to ‘Iolani for comment on rising tuition, Michelle Hee, director of communications and public relations, said in an email that the cost of maintaining small class sizes and low student-teacher ratios is the school’s cost quality education and nurturing relationships.

“Thanks to the generosity and support of our donors, each student receives a hidden stipend of more than $12,000, bridging the gap between full tuition and the actual cost of an ‘Iolani education,” added Hee.

“The school’s foundation and the annual support from our donors make a crucial contribution to the fact that we can finance the school fee gap and keep the school fee increases to a minimum. We also strive to enroll qualified students with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Twenty-five percent of our student body receive need-based scholarships, and we have provided a total of $7.3 million in grants for the 2022-23 school year.”

Pandemic proves costly

While Punahou’s tuition will rise 4.5% to $28,960 to keep up with higher operating costs, school president Mike Latham notes that the increase follows last year’s increase of just 2.75%, the smallest since 1999 and the second smallest in 43 years. “We recognized that the community was impacted by the economic downturn of the pandemic. … We want to be where we can react sensitively to the general economic situation,” he said.

The pandemic forced Punahou to increase total student financial aid from $8 million to more than $10 million, Latham said. Punahou remains committed to diversity and a “necessary” admissions process that accepts students regardless of their ability to pay, he said; About a quarter of Punahou’s nearly 4,000 students receive financial aid, with the average student price being about $11,360.

Punahou’s high costs from the pandemic also include equipment, programming and teacher training for a temporary full shift to distance learning in 2020, Latham said, and “we’ve invested a lot more in security — thermal scanners, air treatment, PPE, smaller classes for cohort.” .” Also costly are investments in equipment, technology and teacher training needed to meet rising expectations of higher education and the workforce; and competitive pay and benefits for the school’s nearly 800 staff, who make up 70% of the operating budget.

Asked whether Punahou families should prepare for a tuition increase in 2023-2024 that could match the current 8% inflation rate, Latham said he didn’t believe it, but that schools everywhere need to prioritize carefully in the current economic climate , to avoid overwhelming families.

Still, Punahou’s tuition rates dwarf those of comparable mainland private schools. At Seattle’s Lakeside School, tuition last year was more than $38,000. At the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, the next school year costs $44,500. The Dalton School in New York will ask for nearly $58,000.

students with special needs

In the Hawaii poll, Variety School near Diamond Head reported the highest tuition at $39,650. But this school specifically serves students with “challenges in the areas of socialization, communicative and language development, and peer relationships, including: high-functioning autism, anxiety-related disorders and nonverbal learning disabilities, attention-deficit disorders, and mild-to-moderate cognitive delays,” its website states. Messages left at Variety School were not returned. Bossert said the higher costs are related to the low teacher-to-student ratio and specialized teachers, therapists, equipment and programs for his students.

What may at first appear like a massive tuition increase at Hawaiian Mission Academy’s high school campus in Makiki is actually just a change the school made to report its “actual tuition fees,” rather than that , which students are charged after subsidies from the supporting church system and local churches are included, Principal Joe Lee said.

“With COVID now, with people moving away, with people losing income… these subsidy numbers have come down significantly, and it’s possible those subsidy numbers will continue to go down in the future,” Lee said. Only after the churches’ fundraising plans are completed in the summer will the school know how much of the $21,513 in tuition can be funded, he said.

Could Higher Tuition and Inflation Slow Enrollment in Hawaii’s Private Schools? The pandemic has already sparked unprecedented changes in the student population, Bossert said. In the 2020-2021 school year, 6,000 students dropped out of regular public schools and 1,000 students dropped out of private schools, and many transitioned to homeschooling and charter schools. With so many variables at play when the federation conducts its next enrollment survey in October, Bossert said, “We’ll see.”