Tuition increases

Leah Yao ’15: Episcopal’s tuition for lower, middle, and upper school will increase four percent for the 2013-2014 school year, which brings the upper school tuition to over $30,000 and the middle school tuition to $27,750.
Tuition accounts for three quarters of the total revenue of the school. Consequently, as Gary Madeira, Chair of the Board of Trustees, explained, “Even if you were perfect at expense control in all other areas, if you wanted to give the faculty some increase, the only way you can do that is by increasing tuition.”
Currently, sixty-five percent of the school’s thirty-nine million dollar budget is directed towards faculty benefits and salaries. Next year, the average teacher salary will rise about three percent, which is cited as one reason for the increase in tuition.
Cheryl McLauchlan, IV Form Dean, explained that another source of increase is our “spending of money on repairs for things we don’t need to destroy,” such as tables which students graffiti and destroyed chairs.
When asked about the increase in tuition, L. Hamilton Clark, Head of School, stated, “Our business is all about people, and it’s about people’s costs. If we want to continue to attract and retain the very best teachers, we have to continue to compensate them.”
The reason for concern is not necessarily over the increase in tuition, but rather the rate of increase compared to previous school years. Over the last three years, yearly tuition increases have been kept down to three percent, but for the upcoming school year it will jump to 4%. Clark said that the additional increase next year will be used for faculty benefits.
According to Madeira, “It would be ideal if we could hold the tuition flat for a year or more but the realities of the world don’t allow us to do that. We want to be fair and diligent in expense control as we go about setting that tuition.” The whole process of determining the tuition is what Madeira calls a “difficult balancing act.”
He continued “The Board of Trustees has really worked hard in trying to keep tuition at a level that pleases all the constituencies that are involved, but, we’re ever mindful that an increase is an increase.”
Relative to other schools in the Philadelphia area, Episcopal’s tuition is “higher than that of a couple schools but significantly lower than schools like Haverford and Shipley,” according to Clark.
Bradley Cates, Chief Financial Officer of Episcopal, stated that the group average for tuition increases among the Inter-ac schools was four and a half percent, higher than EA’s for next year.
Teacher salaries are also different among private and public schools. Cates cited Radnor school district as one which has higher teacher salaries and stated that “we have to be competitive with public schools [like Radnor].”
Madeira and the Board of Trustees believe that the tuition increase will increase the quality of the classroom experience, which is “critical to the value proposition. We hope the parent community and students recognize that there is a real value assigned to an Episcopal Academy education.”