{"id":83375,"date":"2020-10-07T03:08:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T00:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/parents-risk-going-broke-paying-for-private-schools-over-virtual\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T03:08:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T00:08:32","slug":"parents-risk-going-broke-paying-for-private-schools-over-virtual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/parents-risk-going-broke-paying-for-private-schools-over-virtual\/","title":{"rendered":"#Parents risk going broke paying for private schools over virtual"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Parents risk going broke paying for private schools over virtual<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n As a longtime supporter of New York City\u2019s public schools, mom of four Rebecca never imagined she would need to educate her kids outside of the system.<\/p>\n

But last month, the Queens-based nurse and her husband, a self-employed contractor, used a home-equity loan to pay a total of $36,000 in tuition for their three older boys, ages 6, 9 and 10, to attend a private school \u2014 solely because classrooms are open five days a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur jobs don\u2019t give us the flexibility to be at home with the kids,\u201d said Rebecca, who asked for her last name not to be published because of potential embarrassment over her financial situation. \u201cDespite the cost and the fact my husband\u2019s business is suffering in the economy, sending our sons to an in-person private school is the only option.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge burden, but you do what you have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exhausted by the \u201chybrid model\u201d followed by many public schools thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 in which at least half of the learning is done remotely via computer \u2014 middle-income families across the country are making huge financial sacrifices, cashing in 401(k)s, borrowing money from relatives and working overtime hours to ensure their children avoid the headache of virtual instruction.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s a huge burden, but you do what you have to do.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Private institutions are more likely to have fully reopened, as they are in a better position to comply with strict Department of Health rules regarding social<\/a> distancing. Many have the advantage of already-small class sizes, as well as endowments and donations that have made it possible to recruit more staff, upgrade air-filtration systems and secure consistent COVID-19 testing.<\/p>\n

Not only that, according to some parents, the hiring of non-unionized teachers is a factor because reluctant staff have less leverage to object to the school\u2019s in-person plans.<\/p>\n

Said Rebecca: \u201cSo many public school teachers got exemptions and are not showing up for work. As a nurse who worked in the ICU and ER at the height of the pandemic, it feels like a kick in the teeth that people are too scared to educate our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roxana Reid, founder of the Manhattan educational consulting firm Smart City Kids<\/a>, told The Post that the number of parents looking to transfer their offspring from public to private schools has risen significantly.<\/p>\n

\"Roxana
Roxana Reid<\/span>Courtesy of Roxana Reid<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her phone rang off the hook in late summer around the time Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the hybrid plans amid threats from teachers\u2019 unions to strike and boycott classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of chaos and uncertainty in already uncertain times,\u201d said Reid. \u201cPeople were seeking a return to normalcy, and it app<\/a>eared neither the [public school] system nor the teachers were ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was also a busy period for independent schools, like the $51,000-a-year L\u00e9man Manhattan Preparatory School.<\/a> The admissions office was inundated with queries as word spread over moms\u2019 Facebook groups that spaces might still be available at its downtown location.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started to see an increase [in interest] from public school families eager to move to private this spring and summer,\u201d said L\u00e9man\u2019s head of school, Maria Castelluccio. \u201cWhen the city announced the start of public school would be delayed, it really picked up, and we received dozens of calls that week alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those who cut their losses was Upper East Side resident Janet, 49. She took her first-grader out of the neighborhood\u2019s PS 290 and enrolled him at a $15,000-a-year Catholic school four weeks ago after borrowing a portion of the price tag from her mother.<\/p>\n

The boy struggled with remote learning in the spring when schools shut down during his final months of kindergarten. Janet couldn\u2019t face more of the same this fall, and decided tuition for in-person instruction was the better way to go, especially if her child is to succeed in reading.<\/p>\n

\"The
The $51,000-a-year L\u00e9man Manhattan Preparatory School.<\/span>Stephen Yang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe could not have afforded to send him somewhere like Dalton, but this was doable,\u201d said the tech-sales worker who asked to remain anonymous to preserve her son\u2019s privacy at school.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Weand family did the math and emptied their 529 to send their two eldest sons, ages 6 and 7, to an $11,000-a-year private in-person Christian school in their home city of Fairfax, Va.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of debate back and forth but it was needs must,\u201d said police officer Deanna Weand, 34. The mom of five and her husband, David, a 39-year-old firefighter, withdrew the cash from the tax-advantaged college-savings plan and are slowly paying back the sum from their salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts us in the negative each month, and David has started working overtime shifts on his days off,\u201d added Weand. \u201cIt\u2019s a strain, but it wasn\u2019t fair on our boys to have three children distance learning from the same room all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Deanna
Deanna Weand said it\u2019s \u201ca strain\u201d to pay so much but it\u2019s necessary for her children\u2019s educations.<\/span>Deanna Weand<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since demand has gotten so high in their area, the couple couldn\u2019t find an open private school spot for their 5-year-old kindergartener. He is enrolled in public school, where classes are currently all remote. His twin 2-year-old sisters are cared for by an au pair.<\/p>\n

Graphic designer Sara, 36, who asked for her last name to be withheld, found herself in a similar position to the Weands. She cashed in her 401(k), worth $50,000, to secure a kindergarten spot for her 5-year-old at a progressive, in-person private school in Jersey City.<\/p>\n

The single mom, who was laid off from her full-time job in May and has since been freelancing, had been \u201cexcited\u201d at the prospect of sending her daughter to a local public school. However, she was stymied by its plan to remain fully remote until at least mid-November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe schedule is ridiculous, with the kids on video with hardly any breaks between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.,\u201d said Sara. \u201cI have phone calls and meetings and can\u2019t sit next to my child all day giving her the help she needs. It\u2019s unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, in late August, she found a vacancy at a $24,000-a-year school where many of the classes are taught outside. The fees are steep, but the CARES Act exempted her from the usual 10 percent penalty for early withdrawals on 401(k)s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the decision doesn\u2019t mean I need to retire in a ditch,\u201d added Sara, who is using the hours her daughter is physically in kindergarten to search for a permanent job. \u201cBut this isn\u2019t necessarily about an investment in my kid\u2019s education as much as an investment in our family\u2019s survival.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Parents risk going broke paying for private schools over virtual” As a longtime supporter of New York City\u2019s public schools, mom of four Rebecca never imagined she would need to educate her kids outside of the system. But last month, the Queens-based nurse and her husband, a self-employed contractor, used a home-equity loan to pay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/private-school-illustration-3.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[74487,74650,1545,70344,70643,70308,74212,47212,72939],"class_list":["post-83375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-6-20","tag-401k","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-in-ny","tag-department-of-education","tag-private-schools","tag-public-schools","tag-teachers","tag-teachers-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}