Why do private Christian schools pay so much less than public schools?

Question

Do you think if they paid more, they would attract better teachers?

Answer 1

Usually the staff of Christian schools are there because they believe they are part of a ministry.
Most Christian schools run on a not-for-profit basis.
I work for a Christian school. Our pay scale is about 2/3 what our staff would receive in the public sector. All of our staff are top notch professionals. We have not ever had any of the families who attend our school question either our professionalism, our conduct, or our curriculum (which is far above the national curriculum requirements)

ps
to bring salary / tuition into perspective - you are aware of the tuition paid for christian education because it is posted for everyone to see - what you don't see or have not paid attention to is that the cost per student in public education is usually at least double what any christian school tuition would be. The public system is free education for an individual student, but everyone pays for it via taxes.
Where I come from, the average public school requires 8 - 10,000 per student to educate that student for one year. In the school I work in, the tuition is 4,950.00 per year per student, with a family rate of 9990.00.
and on a side note - even though parents who choose to put their children in a christian school pay tuition, they still must pay their taxes to the public education system (not complaining about that - it's necessary).

Answer 2

I wasn't aware that they paid less...With the cost of tuition for private school you would think that the teachers would get paid more.. But with that said I get the feeling from your question that you feel the private school teachers aren't very good. My experence has been just the opposite. I had a child in private school and one in public. The teachers at the private Christian school were MUCH better.

Answer 3

I believe what the others said about the funding is correct. I thought they would make more too, however, I am currently in college to get my teaching degree, and my teacher said that a lot of teachers in our state (NY) are forced to take private school jobs just to get the experience. I guess they actually pay almost half of what a public school would for the same type of job. Needless to say, I've been looking into relocating! ;)

Answer 4

Private schools don't receive money from the state, county ,or federal government. I don't think pay would attract better teachers. There are teachers that I have known that are better than public school teachers.

Answer 5

Private schools usually pay less because they do not have the same budget allotted to them as public schools do. Aslo, the private schools tend to have smaller class sizes compared to a public school. One must also factor in that private schools tend to cater to children that do not need extra help. These are all factors when the pay scale is taken into account

Answer 6

they don't get funding from the government. all the money that the institution gets is from the tuition that the students are paying... so if they aren't charging the students much, the teachers aren't going to get paid much. another thing is that some teachers prefer to teach in the private school setting because you have the opportunity to teach more...

most private schools have great teachers for some reason... great teachers are those who don't do it for the money...

Answer 7

that is a question i am confused about also, why do they cost so much and pay so much less,i think most private schools have good teachers to begin with because alot of private school kids are very smart, i am a public school kid but i have several private school friends that came to public school when we started high school and they are really smart, but kind of quiet.

Answer 8

They should earn more...........but years ago I went to a Catholic Elementary school and since there were less students I learned a lot more than in public school. Well, I should say that when I entered 9th grade they were teaching me what I had learned in private school in the 8th grade.

Answer 9

I go to a private high school (catholic) and since church and state are seperate, the government does not financially aid our school. We seem like the 'rich' kids which in a sense is sort of true considering our parents spend thousands to send us there..the thing is, the public school system gets TONS more money from everyones taxes..so there you go.

Answer 10

* Usually they have a small or limited budget. There are some great teachers in the Christian Schools.