The Costs Of Privilege
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
Independent School notification day is approaching. The increasing lack of confidence in public (government) schools is driving private school enrollment. (In NYC, private school applications were up 25 percent.)
K-12 public school enrollment dropped from a peak of 50.8 million in 2019 to 49.5 million by fall 2023. The National Center for Education Statistics projects this will fall below 47 million by 2031. Over 1.2 million students left traditional public schools by fall 2023. Triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend has continued due to rising homeschooling (+45%), increased private school enrollment (+14%), declining birth rates, and shifts to charter schools.
What are the true costs of sending your child to a private independent school?
As independent school tuitions across the country exceed $70K annually, the question arises: what are students/families really getting for their money? A recent post on X asked ClaudeAI to build a model showing how much money you would give your kids over time if you invested that money in the markets, went to public school, and skipped college.
What are the costs of “belonging”?
Schools select their students through very rigorous vetting, and they want those students to feel they actually “belong.” To belong, there are cues and flags, posters, and offices dedicated to ensuring that students know the “correct” way to belong. This means students must express fealty to social justice activism, which these schools compel through their continued focus on race, gender, and climate. Despite what many schools say, they still push divisive (just repackaged) DEI, anti-Western, and anti-capitalist tenets, and incessantly focus on identity.
Schools claim to value discourse, well-being, inclusion, resilience, and curiosity. Yet, in practice, this isn’t happening. In the Winter 2026 issue of Independent School Magazine, Emily Sclafani published an article titled “Dignity and Discourse,” in which she acknowledges that many students do not feel free to think or speak openly. As she writes, “It troubles me deeply to see students shy away from independent, critical thinking out of fear that speaking honestly may cost them too much.”
How can schools expect students to speak up and ask potentially provocative or even logical questions when a single wrong word or going against the groupthink can lead to social ostracization, a bad grade, or even suspension/expulsion? What kind of culture does this create? Is the school committed to producing independent thinking truth-seekers rather than conformist social justice activists?
A powerful example comes from Lucy Biggers, who graduated from Greens Farms Academy in 2008 with a desire to do good and make an impact. In high school, she was shown the film An Inconvenient Truth, was swept up in the climate movement, and became a leader in promoting the “world is burning” narratives. Lucy, like many young people, found her identity in being a good person, on the “right side of history,” and in atoning for her white privilege, which she learned at her private school. Lucy explains why she left the movement, why she now believes the groupthink is harming young people, and keeps them depressed about the state of the world.
What are the costs of “belonging”?
No school is perfect. But how much are you willing to overlook? The example below is just one of many that should give parents pause and prompt careful consideration of their options.
Consider the following questions to help assess your school and its leadership:
Are your values aligned with the school, and what will you do if you learn otherwise?
Does the school have anti-bias or bias incident reporting systems? Who is this meant to protect?
How many students are dismissed each year for purported bias?
What is the disciplinary process that leads to punishment?
Who is leading the school? Is the school conducting a search for a new Head of School (or other leadership positions), or will they have a new Head of School this fall?
Do teachers openly share their beliefs? What would happen to a student who challenged those beliefs in class?
As the country moves on from gender identity, is the school asking for pronouns?
Before signing your school enrollment contract, make sure you truly understand what you’re committing to—and whether the costs outweigh the benefits. If you need more resources, click here: https://www.parentsunite.org/take-action.
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