Private School vs. Public School Calculator Methodology

The calculator estimates direct private school costs, direct public school costs, aid and tax offsets, optional housing tradeoffs, opportunity cost, monthly funding gaps, education savings balances, and year-by-year cost changes over the selected comparison period.

Private school costs start with first-child tuition and additional-child tuition after any sibling discount. The calculator adds application and enrollment fees in year one, recurring registration or technology fees, uniforms, books, supplies, transportation, meals, activities, family donations, before or aftercare, tutoring, and summer programs.

Recurring education costs are increased each year by the entered annual education cost inflation assumption. One-time application and enrollment fees apply only in the first modeled year.

Public school costs include user-entered fees, supplies, transportation, meals, activities, before or aftercare, tutoring, summer programs, and family-level PTA, donation, or support costs. Per-child costs are multiplied by the number of children and recurring costs are inflated over time.

Sibling discounts reduce additional-child private tuition only. Scholarship or aid entries reduce private school net cost. Employer, family, or other education assistance is treated as a user-entered annual offset.

If enabled, housing tradeoffs add extra monthly housing cost, property tax difference, and one-time moving costs to the public school path. The higher home price or rent to live in a preferred district is shown separately as a housing capital difference and is not double-counted as annual school cost.

When opportunity cost is enabled, each year of private school net cost is grown to the end of the comparison period using the entered saved-or-invested return assumption. The calculator shows direct private school cost separately from private school cost plus opportunity cost.

Opportunity cost is an estimate only. Investment returns are not guaranteed.

Monthly averages divide each path's direct net cost by the number of months in the comparison period. A funding gap is shown when the monthly average is above the entered monthly amount available for school costs.

The calculator starts with entered education savings, adds the monthly amount available for school costs, optionally applies monthly savings growth, and subtracts a monthly equivalent of annual school costs. Ending balances are shown for the private and public paths.

The recommendation compares direct net costs first. If private school net cost and public school net cost are within the close threshold, the result is labeled close. Otherwise, the lower direct-cost path is labeled as the option that may cost less based on the inputs.

The calculator compares costs only. It does not say one school type is better educationally.

This calculator does not include school quality, admissions chances, exact tuition assistance eligibility, exact tax treatment, exact investment returns, exact housing resale effects, mortgage financing effects unless entered separately, academic outcomes, or legal, tax, education, real estate, investment, or financial advice.

This calculator compares costs only. It does not evaluate educational quality, fit, safety, admissions, academic outcomes, or personal family priorities.

These calculators are for educational purposes only and are not financial, tax, legal, insurance, investment, real estate, employment, medical, childcare, vehicle-buying, or professional advice.

This calculator is for educational purposes only and is not financial, tax, legal, education, real estate, parenting, investment, or professional advice.