A School That Cost $20,000 Not to Go To

[flashl]

A couple who agreed to send their child to the Little Red School House in Manhattan found a change of mind to be rather costly

About six weeks ago, Michele Bender, a freelance writer who lives in SoHo, took out her checkbook. She wrote a $10,000 check for the balance of what she owed a desirable West Village private school, the Little Red School House, bringing the total she had paid to $20,000. She put it in the mail. Then she called her husband and cried.

...

In February 2007, their daughter was given a coveted spot in the kindergarten at Little Red.

More than three months later, in June, they learned their daughter had also been accepted into one of three gifted and talented schools available citywide...

After agonizing for a few weeks, Mr. Bender called Little Red officials in early July to tell them their decision.

He knew they would lose their $2,500 deposit; he even feared they would have to fight to get back the other $7,500 they had already put down. (That’s crazy talk, his friends told him.)

But he was shocked when a school official immediately informed him the school would hold him accountable for all of it — the whole tuition, a commitment he had made when he signed the contract back in February.

NY Times

[madaboutharry]

1. This is standard operating procedure for private schools.

I have sent my children to private schools in the past and had to sign similar contracts.

[SheilaT]

2. Why people need to read

every word of any contract they sign.

[FARAFIELD]

3. Dumb Ass Richie

You have to be rich to throw away money like that anyway, she cried? Who cares, damn.

[Ms. Toad]

4. $20,000 a year

for kindergarten???

Sorry, but anyone who can afford to spend that much to avoid sending their child to public kindergarten should have enough money sense to read the contract.

[dsc]

7. actually it was 26k, about 6k ended up being forgiven

[aikoaiko]

5. obviously unreasonable if a paying student will fill the slot.

Thats what the nonrefundable deposit is for, the rest of the tuition should be returned. Its more understandable if the semester had started.

I think it can fought in civil court if they actually fill the slot.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. Middle class people have no business trying to raise a child in NYC.

The power elite currently at the helm have made this abundantly clear.

Seriously, there are a lot of people raising children in Manhattan. I cannot fathom how they do it. Ms. Bender earns admiration for managing to navigate the byzantine complexities and obstacles that the current mayor and his appointees have erected to keep families from finding descent public schools to attend.

The private schools call the shots here... given the alternative, public school. They fear nothing, apparently; not even bad publicity in the NY Times.