A word on Tuition

That dreaded four-letter word.  C-O-S-T.

On one hand, how much is that little mind worth?
On the other hand, he's only stinkin' 3 years old... I don't even have a memory of my own preschool days!

Every school, at least for preschool, seemed to have it's own different schedule of hours and days available.
I will try to break it down to a by hour cost, if I can.

Also keep in mind that you will likely have to pay an application fee, then once accepted a registration or enrollment fee (Disclaimer:  sometimes you have to pay both, even if you don't get in.  Read the fine print!)  The registration/enrollment fee is usually a non-refundable annual fee.  Sometimes there is also an activity fee.

A question you should ask each school:  what fund-raising requirements do you levy on parents and students?  There is a cost in my time.  I personally feel that my free time is worth twice what I make an hour at work.  Some schools have a parental labor requirement.  Some have opportunities to purchase items that support the school (Scholastic books and the like).  Some require that your student "raise" a certain amount of money throughout the year by soliciting friends neighbors and relatives... none of whom will be friends after your fourth gift wrap and popcorn tin catalog makes its rounds.

In general, the Montessori programs think very highly of themselves.  They also in general have the highest student to teacher ratio.  Of all of the Montessori facilities that I visited, I didn't think any of the buildings and rooms and such were any better than the lower costed programs that I visited.  So where does the additional tuition money go?  If it were to go to the teachers, most of whom have taken Montessori certification programs, I would be all for that.  There are some Montessori non-re-useable supplies each year, I suppose.  But probably no more so than most preschools.  I'm pretty sure Montessori teachers do not make much more than regular preschool teachers (I have a cousin who teaches Montessori as my sole data point, so I haven't done a lot of research).  But my presumption is that the bulk of the money goes to the owner, usually known as the Directress.  I had kind of a problem with that.  25 kids * 4 classes = 100 kids * $10,000 a year/kid = $1,000,000 per year gross, minimum.  8 teachers + say 2 administrators.  That's $100,000 each.  I doubt they are getting half of that. In fact, I would be surprised if they were getting a quarter of that.  Which means by my poor estimate that the Directress is clearing a half mil a year.  Wow.  Am I in the wrong business!

All things to think about.