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There's a lesson that parents should learn before signing contracts for a private school: always read the fine print. The NY Times tells the story of a Soho couple (David and Michele Bender) whose daughter won a coveted, if pricey--$26,000/year--spot in the kindergarten program at the West Village's Little Red School House (pictured).
The Benders put down a $2,500 deposit and another $7,500 towards the tuition, but then three months later, their daughter was accepted into a public (and free) gifted-and-talented school. When Mr. Bender told the Little Red School House their daughter wouldn't be attending, it was only to learn that the private 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."
Allegedly schools try to fill the vacant slot before digging into the pockets of parents; The Times touches upon the gray areas (“it wouldn’t have been hard for Little Red to fill that spot"), but in the end the contract stood, though the school did forgo charging $6,000 of the tuition.
And the Benders better hope their kid gets into a magnet high school--private high schools cost close to $30,000/year in tuition!
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what could they possibly teach a kindergartener in a 26,000 dollar school as opposed to a regular public school? That there are different shades of red colored blocks? You are only paying for the ability to segregate your kid from other minority kids. Which is good and bad.
can i hijack and ask why we're not beating the shit out of emily gould over here? the oldies are a-havin' at her over at nyt...
babyhitler, how can you be so insensitive? This child is gifted and talented. She does not belong in a regular kindergarten. She needs to learn French and calculus or she'll fall behind and never get into a good prep school.
This is standard practice at most private schools. They should have read the enrollment contract.
And she needs to learn the things that were lacking in her parents' education, like how to read a contract and what signing one means.
I think the school has a duty to mitigate the damages here. If they've got a limited enrollment and they could find another family to pay $26,000 for that slot, they're not harmed by the Bender family backing out.
Harmed or not, a contract is binding. My question is, if this school is so special, why didn't they just say 'daughter, go to this expensive well-funded private school, since we're screwed into paying for it anyway.'
"You are only paying for the ability to segregate your kid from other minority kids"
Perhaps you should look at the charter for the Manhattan Country School or the demographics of the United Nations International School (UNIS).
fuck the bender family. they should pay every last cent. being an administrator at a school like this would be complete hell (apart from the 200,000$ paycheck). having to deal with all the stuck up idiot parents going back and forth between your school and some other ludicrous kindergarten and then if they do enroll crying about how the pre-k curriculum is too liberal or conservative, or how their 5 year old isn't being challenged enough.. maybe if they are held to the fire they'll learn a lesson