The shift comes as private education costs continue to climb. Tuition at elite private schools now averages nearly $50,000 a year, while boarding school can approach $80,000 before accounting for trips and other expenses.
For years, schools largely served families at opposite ends of the income spectrum. Wealthy families paid full tuition, while lower-income students received substantial aid.
Families in between, however, have been harder to accommodate. Even high earners may struggle to justify the cost, particularly in expensive cities or when they have more than one child in private school.
Schools are responding with sliding-scale tuition, cost-of-living adjustments, discounts and expanded financial aid programs intended to reach families that traditionally would have been considered too affluent to qualify.
The change also reflects a more basic challenge for private schools: they need students. With fewer school-age children and tuition continuing to climb, some schools are finding that charging an affluent family less than full price can make more sense than losing the student altogether.
Private school tuition is rising faster than college costs
It’s not hard to see why more affluent families are balking at the cost of private school. Private K-12 tuition has been rising faster than inflation and even college tuition, long considered one of the biggest expenses facing American families.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), elementary and high school tuition and fees rose 4.3% from August 2025 to August 2026. College tuition and fees increased 2.8% over the same period, while overall inflation was 3.4%.
The gap stretches back further, as BLS found that private elementary and high school tuition climbed 41.8% between July 2011 and July 2021. College tuition and fees rose 32% through September 2019 before leveling off for the remainder of that period. Private K-12 tuition then rose another 8.6% between February 2020 and February 2023, compared with a 4.7% increase in college tuition.
College costs have followed a very different trajectory when adjusted for inflation. According to the College Board, average tuition and fees at public colleges have declined over the past decade in inflation-adjusted terms, while private nonprofit four-year colleges have increased by 2%.
