Why do people think parents who pay for private education are enormously wealthy?

[SheineOn]

Is this just the stereotype?

I went to a school that cost 18k a year (15 years ago). It’s now 24k a year.

There were wealthy people there. But also many ‘normal’ people. At least 40% fell into that category. People who lived on estates, drove modest cars, skipped holidays and ate cheaply.

They made a choice to spend their money on private education. For context, two of my closest friends have dc in private. They live off 450 a month after paying fees. They are not high earners.

Not everyone has endless wealth. Some are just happy to make the sacrifice. I find it strange people don’t seem to get that and makes me wonder how lacking in knowledge you must be to have that view of the private sector.

i'm almost astounded at the lack of thinking on this thread by some clearly very out of touch individuals.

2k a month for private school is what i spend on housing costs and my bills per month. Should i sacrifice those to be able to send my child to Private School? As that's how to show i 'care' about my Childs education.

But parents who maybe both earn 40K to afford private school are being called wealthy!

And yet I could say the same for a lot of the "private school" parents on here. Their ignorance of their own privilege is astounding (even the "stretched" ones)

It's pretty awful to for OP to describe people as lacking in knowledge (i.e. ignorant).
There may be people and there were at my private school who had wealthy family members who paid their fees. I really wouldn't assume that the children who don't have obviously wealthy parents are there because of sacrifices....and on that point if you value a private education above all else then not going on holiday etc isn't a sacrifice...

18K and I work purely to pay the fees.

@twistyizzy and if you had to work purely to put bread on the table and pay rent, how would you pay the fees then? Or would you mysteriously transmogrify into a parent who didn't value education or believe in making sacrifices? Cop yourself on 🙄

Um, £24k a year is a lot of money?
That is a person’s salary.

That £450 ‘left over’ after fees, is also left over after mortgage, transport, bills, food, clothing, etc etc?

Yes they are high earners, yes they are wealthy, they are very privileged and so are you, you if you can’t recognise that.

My entire monthly income as a lone parent is £2.3k 🤣

😂

But parents who maybe both earn 40K to afford private school are being called wealthy!

Yes, that is a wealthy family. A family where both parents earn £20k each is not overly wealthy. I'd say a family income of £50-60k per year is confortable/well off. A family income of £20-30k per year is not.

The average UK salary is somewhere between £30k and £35k. The average household, with two parents earning an average salary, brings in £60k to £70k. Average cost of living for a family of four is around £4k per month, this is £48k per year. If you're at the higher end of the average salary range this would leave you with £22k - in many cases, not enough to privately educate one child, let alone another one (and bearing in mind that most have more than one child). If you're a 'normal' person, earning an average salary you cannot afford private education, no matter how much you 'prioritise' education. No car maintenance, no house maintenance, no Christmas or birthday presents, no day trips out, no holidays - staycation or abroad. No wriggle room for unforeseen eventualities or life's little luxuries. People who 'prioritise' private education have considerably more disposable income than the vast majority of people. Not super wealthy perhaps, but very, very comfortable. My family is comfortable. We could not afford private education for our two children. We'd probably struggle with one.

This is why only 7% of parents educate their children privately!

because in comparison, they are. Obviously we don't know every single persons personal details, but if you have a combined income of 80k thats about 56-57k take home per year.

if you then have 19-25k DISPOSABLE INCOME then yes, you are wealthy. Without that expense, that is a huge amount of disposable income to have. Surely you see that?

@Thamantha it speaks volumes that you’d rather a child not have a decent education and instead be driven around in a Porsche so the money can be spent commercially.

Anyone who has kids in a private school and is on the cusp of being able to pay for it won’t be wasting money on fancy things like that. That’s literally the point of my post.

I don't get why people are so offended at being called wealthy either. I'd love to be called wealthy.

There were wealthy people there. But also many ‘normal’ people. At least 40% fell into that category. People who lived on estates, drove modest cars, skipped holidays and ate cheaply.

Most “normal” families don’t have 24k after tax spare for school fees.

Driving an old car, eating cheaply etc which many people do doesn’t mean you have 24k spare for fees despite making sacrifices.

They made a choice to spend their money on private education. For context, two of my closest friends have dc in private. They live off 450 a month after paying fees. They are not high earners.

Do they pay a mortgage and bills out of the £450?

I don’t think everyone who uses private school is wealthy but many are and the cohort certainly is average earners. I don’t understand the narrative of “these are just parents who sacrificed other things for their dc” because that’s largely BS.

mine is the same!
that £300 difference is food and that. :(

Wealth is relative.

Many people working minimum wage jobs might consider you wealthy. I'm not saying you are wealthy as I earn £48000 but to some the ability to pay £18000 for between 7-13 years (£126000 - £234,000) is so far out of their reach it's understandable they view you as wealthy in comparison to them.

That's still out of reach for a lot of people though..

Ah yes because us 93% of the population peasants never had a decent education 😂

@Leah5678

the entire reason the government wants more money is to put it into the failing state system. Because it’s failing…

The argument that ‘normal financially off ‘people chose to make a sacrifice to get their kids through private school is used by people saying well why do my taxes go to schools when my family doesn’t use schools. It’s a slippery slope to private schools for all and private healthcare.

But parents who maybe both earn 40K to afford private school are being called wealthy!

Who can afford 24k out of an income of 80k and housing though? The person I know who earns 100k and sends 2 to private school only can afford that as their parents bought them a house. So that makes them wealthy rather than just their income.

Because it is used as a stick to beat people with ie "tax the wealthy" etc. I have been called a "rich t*at" on this forum for my choices.

This

You need to give your head a wobble OP.

People who 'prioritise' private education have considerably more disposable income than the vast majority of people. Not super wealthy perhaps, but very, very comfortable. My family is comfortable. We could not afford private education for our two children. We'd probably struggle with one.

The ones who can afford it despite not having high incomes tend to have family wealth so it frees up disposable income.

Why do people think parents who pay for private education are enormously wealthy?

Why do some OP's ask silly questions when the answer is blindingly obvious?