Average Cost of Private School in Ohio

The great deterrent of sending your kid to a private school is the cost. There are many types of private schools with varying programs and costs of tuition. So, what is the average cost of private schools in Ohio?

The average cost of a private school in Ohio is $7,490 per year. For elementary schools, the average cost is $6,877 per year, and for high schools, the average cost is $10,444 per year. There are private schools that range in the cost of yearly tuition from about $1,000 up to more than $60,000.

The reason for the wide range of tuition is mainly due to the difference in the quality of the institution. This includes aspects like the type of private school, the age of the building, quality of the teachers, literacy rate, and college preparedness.

Main Types of Private Schools in Ohio

There are two main types of private schools, sectarian and nonsectarian. This basically means that there are church and non-church affiliated private schools in Ohio. This is a general divide that is true for all of The United States. According to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2016, 40.3% of the private schools in the USA were religiously affiliated schools, with Catholic Schools making up about 38.2% of religious schools.

Ohio has another general divide between private schools: Chartered vs. Non-Chartered. This difference between these two types of private schools is often very important to those enrolling their children in these types of schools.

The difference between chartered and non-chartered private schools is whether or not these schools adhere to the standards set by the State of Ohio. Non-chartered schools are not tax-supported and can sometimes get away with not following certain regulations, even though they still have to follow many regulations to ensure the quality of the education they are providing to students.

Religious schools generally cost slightly less than other private schools, as the average cost of a Catholic high school in the USA is about $9,500, but overall, the difference between sectarian and nonsectarian schools will be in values, not cost.

Why are Private Schools So Expensive?

Here is a table of random private school yearly tuition costs that I compiled.

Name of School	Type	Cost for Grades k-5	Cost for Grades 6-8	Cost for Grades 9-12
Adams County Christian	k-12	$5,500	$5,500	$6,000
Middletown Christian	k-12	$8,140	$8,140	$8,140
Grand River Academy	8-12	NA	$49,500	$49,500
Haugland Learning Center	k-12	$25,000	$25,000	$25,000
Holy Rosary	k-8	$7,850	$7,850	NA
Al Ihsan Islamic School	k-12	$5,600	$5,500	$7,500
Genoa Christian Academy	k-12	$7,918	$7,918	$7,918
Bishop Fenwick	9-12	NA	NA	$10,135
Bishop Watterson	9-12	NA	NA	$10,175
Archbishop Hoban	9-12	NA	NA	$12,300

So, very clearly there is a lot of variety in the cost of tuition for a sectarian or nonsectarian private school.

The other thing they all have in common is they all cost thousands of dollars more than public schools. Why is that the case? Many people think that it is because private schools aren’t financed and funded by the state or federal government. This is partially true, but not entirely.

Most private schools in Ohio accept some level of federal funding usually in the form of school lunches or special needs support. It is for this reason that many private schools are chartered schools that have to follow certain federal regulations.

However, outside of those subsidizing funds, the rest of the costs of running a private school, from paying the teachers to heating the buildings, is paid with the tuition paid by the parents of students and private funding.

So, private schools are much more expensive than public schools, but many parents are okay with spending the extra because of the qualities that private schools have to offer and the quality of the education that is being provided.

Is the Extra Money Worth it?

Now it is time for the great debate among parents with children in grade school. Is paying for expensive private schools worth all of the extra money?

There are basically two main reasons parents send their children to private schools. The first is because they believe the educational quality is higher than that of public schools. The second is because they want to send their children to a school that will teach them values that they don’t think they will be taught at public schools. This is a large reason why parents choose to send their children to religion-affiliated private schools.

According to the National Assessment for Educational Progress, students that attend private schools achieve better scores in every school subject.

Now, how much better they do for the price of money paid is still a debated topic, but it is true that on average, paying for your children to attend a private school will result in them performing better in their education.

Now for the second matter.

For this, I will speak from personal experience. I attended public school from kindergarten all the way through high school graduation. In all my years in public school, there were a total of seven other people who shared the same religion as me, and two of them were my siblings. To speak bluntly, the environment was not encouraging to me to continue my religious practices.

However, I attended a private university endorsed by my religion, and the values that the school embraced very much encouraged the values taught by the religion in very beneficial ways.

What I’m saying is that for me, it was extremely worth it and beneficial to attend a school that shared my beliefs. I enjoyed going to school in completely different environments and learning more views of the world than what my parents believed. But, especially for parents who are afraid of their children departing more traditional religious views, private schools can be worth every dollar you spend so your children can be enrolled in them.

The nice part about private schools is that they are only a yearly commitment. For some kids, a year is much too long, but in the end, one wasted year at a private school is rarely detrimental. Especially with the variety of private schools in Ohio, it is likely that you will be able to find a private school that is right for your children.