Some teachers are making less than their students are paying in tuition at tony New York City private schools.<\/p>\n
A Post investigation revealed that, at some of the city\u2019s best private K-12 schools, a full-time teacher can make more than $17,000 less than their own students\u2019 parents pay for them to attend kindergarten.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the schools sit on massive endowments and often pay their heads of school more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
Blythe Grossberg said many of her colleagues had rich spouses or trust funds. Courtesy of Blythe Grossberg<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very stressed about money when I lived in New York,\u201d Blythe Grossberg, a former teacher at the ritzy Upper West Side all-boys school Collegiate, told The Post. \u201cIt was almost impossible to live on my salary in New York. Like, there was absolutely no way it could be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Collegiate, a lower school substitute teacher could make no more than $50 <\/a>an hour and as little as $25 \u2014\u00a0less than Mayor Zohran Mamdani was paying emergency snow shovelers<\/a> this winter. Tuition is $68,900.<\/p>\n Grossberg, a Harvard-educated learning specialist with a doctorate, says she started at $55,000 when she worked at elite NYC prep schools including Collegiate and Packer Collegiate Institute from 2005 to 2018 \u2014 hardly enough to get by in the city, especially because she has a son with autism who requires services.<\/p>\n \u201cI basically was tutoring around the clock just to pay the mortgage slash rent slash expenses,\u201d she recalled. \u201c[My colleagues] were always either tutoring or working in summer school. They had all kinds of side gigs.\u201d <\/p>\n At Dalton, a recent teaching job was listed with a salary of $66,000 to $69,000, compared with tuition of $67,480. Helayne Seidman for NY Post<\/p>\n But not everyone. Grossberg realized that many of her colleagues could get by, thanks to their own privilege.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the dirty little secret, at least in my experience, is that a lot of the teachers also went to private school, so some of them have trust funds, basically,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then, it\u2019s helpful if they have a very rich spouse.\u201d<\/p>\n For those without a rich spouse or family money, the salaries can be rough \u2014 and totally incongruous with the wealth that fills NYC private schools.<\/p>\n At Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, students pay $59,000. Yet they could be taught by a lower school associate teacher of Spanish, music, or art making only<\/a> $52,000 to $60,000 a year.<\/p>\n Grossberg said it\u2019s hard to get by as a private school teacher without a trust fund or rich spouse to help pick up the bills for you. Courtesy of Blythe Grossberg<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the head of school was raking in<\/a> $1 million, between $983,000 base pay and $192,000 in other payments, in 2023, according to tax filings.<\/p>\n At the all-girls Nightingale-Bamford School on the Upper East Side, a kindergarten associate teacher could make<\/a> as little as $54,000 and only as much as $60,000, according to a recent job posting.<\/p>\n Tuition is $71,600 for the very kindergartners they teach. Their head of school also pulled in<\/a> more than $1 million in salary and other compensation in the 2024 school year.<\/p>\n Many private school teachers make less than their public school counterparts. Starting salary<\/a> without teaching experience in public schools is $68,900 with a bachelor\u2019s degree and $77,500 with a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n That minimum starting salary is pushing the maximum of some private school job listings. At Dalton, prospective first- and second-grade associate teachers are being offered<\/a> between $66,000 and $69,000. Tuition at the Upper East Side school is $67,500, and the head of school makes more than<\/a> $1 million, according to tax filings.<\/p>\n Emily Glickman has spent 27 years advising families on admissions to New York City private schools. She says there\u2019s a total disconnect between what families assume their teachers are making and reality.<\/p>\n Some teachers at the ritzy Upper East Side all-girls school Brearley could make less than annual tuition. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a perception gap between what families are paying and what teachers are earning,\u201d she said. \u201cFamilies assume tuition is going to teachers \u2014 but a significant portion supports the broader institutional structure.\u201d<\/p>\n Grossberg saw this firsthand while teaching middle and high school students at Collegiate.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the students ask me, like, \u2018Dr. Grossberg, where are you going this summer?\u2019 And I was kind of like, you know, \u2018To my apartment in Brooklyn to vacuum,’\u201d the teacher recalled. She\u2019s the author of a book about her experience teaching in private schools called \u201cI Left My Homework in the Hamptons<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Glickman says parents \u201cassume that their $70,000 tuition means private school teachers are being paid at a completely different level from public school teachers.\u201d <\/p>\n Emily Glickman says most families incorrectly assume that their higher tuition goes to the teachers. Courtesy of Emily Glickman<\/p>\n At Brearley, an all-girls Upper East Side school, a lower school associate teaching job was recently listed<\/a> for $63,700, while tuition is $66,800.<\/p>\n Ethical Culture Fieldston, a \u201cprogressive\u201d K-12 school that describes itself<\/a> as \u201ccooperative [and] student-centered,\u201d was recently ripped by Town & Country<\/a> for advertising a role <\/a>for associate teachers with a $60,200 salary, compared with a $68,200 tuition price tag.<\/p>\n Ethical Culture Fieldston School is a progressive K-12 school that calls itself \u201cstudent-centered.\u201d Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the school told The Post the median teachers\u2019 earnings are higher, at $137,000. Fieldston\u2019s top earner is its CEO, who made $949,000 in 2024, according to publicly available filings.<\/p>\n The Post reached out to Brearley, Dalton, Collegiate, Nightingale-Bamford, Riverdale, and Grace Church School but received no reply.<\/p>\n Paul Rossi, a former high school math teacher at the Grace Church School from 2012 to 2021, said private school teachers might start approaching public school salaries, but it takes a long time to catch up.<\/p>\n \u201cFor teachers with more than 20 years\u2019 experience at the \u2018elite\u2019 privates in New York, salaries may approach that of public teachers,\u201d he said, noting that\u2019s in part due to the strength of public school unions.<\/p>\n Paul Rossi says many private school teachers choose less pay over the chaos of public schools. courtesy of<\/p>\n At Grace Church School, a lower school and early childhood associate teacher can expect to make <\/a>only $60,000 to $62,000, while tuition was $68,500<\/a> for the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n Rossi points out that private school teachers are usually making a conscious choice to accept less pay.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be a source of frustration, but it\u2019s more like a tradeoff,\u201d he said. \u201cPublic school teachers who move to private schools often frame the decision as getting less pay for a more desirable work environment. You might take as much as 20K less per year, but you escape the bureaucracy and terrible discipline issues.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cGenerally most private school teachers just accept getting lower pay than public as a \u2018fact of life.\u2019 For most of them, I think they see the higher pay in public school like a form of \u2018hazard pay.\u2019 The difference between drilling a regular oil well and an offshore one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some teachers are making less than their students are paying in tuition at tony New York City private…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,9,24,55,54,56,18508,209,16999,58],"class_list":["post-239555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-private-schools","tag-public-schools","tag-salaries","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}