The balance between tuition and fees, and a private school budget necessary to provide a high quality education in the kind of intellectually, spiritually and physically safe environment that our parents desire for their children is very delicate. In the United States, the average cost of a year of education, per student is more than $18,000. Of course, public schools are funded by taxpayer dollars. In private education, especially Christian education, tuition is the primary means of financing school operations. That means that every budget item is carefully considered for its necessity, before putting it in.
MCA is able to keep tuition and fees at a relatively low rate, compared to other private, religious-based, fully accredited schools for several reasons. One, as a ministry of Midwest Bible Church, our buildings are debt-free, and we do not pay any lease or rental fee for their use. We pay our share of the utilities and maintenance. This saves about $2,000 per year, per student on school expenses.
In addition to this, MCA is blessed to have many donors who are very generous in their support of Christian school education, including Midwest Bible Church. Over the past five years, contributions to the school have amounted to over $500,000, which includes all of the funding provided to renovate the school's facility in the summer of 2018. Contributions from donors to the school adds up to more than $3,000 per student over the past five years, and that's a significant savings to the budget.
All of our staff members make a financial sacrifice to be here. Our school has achieved full accreditation, which means that all of our instructional staff have a degree in the field, and have completed specific coursework related to the teaching profession. It also means that our school meets, or exceeds a set of some 85 indicators of excellence in eight categories of our operation and instruction. We are small, but our academic program is excellent and the sacrifice made by our teachers, believing that this is a ministry calling they are serving, not only makes it possible, but it is a major factor in our low tuition and fee rates.
In the past, to raise additional funds for special projects outside the school budget, MCA held a chocolate candy sale in the fall. This sale, which required students and families to assist with selling candy and raising money, usually raised about $18,000, of which the school was able to keep about $6,000. We have used these funds to purchase chrome books, P.E. equipment, music instruments and other items not covered by the tuition budget.
After doing this for a number of years, parents made note of the fact that a lot of effort was required to sell candy at a higher price than it could be purchased in a store while only realizing a third of the actual profit. Many families indicated that they often just bought the candy themselves, which was easier. So we began looking at what other private, religious-based schools do to raise additional funds outside of the tuition budget.
Most of the schools in our area have a "fund raising option," which means that, for a specific dollar amount, related to the amount of money that the school sets as a goal to raise for one school year, parents can opt out of having to sell items by simply paying the goal amount per-family. Both of the Catholic schools in our immediate area do this. St. Patrick's requires students to raise $750 per year, through their school fundraising program. Typically, $500 is a standard amount asked of parents to raise for specific projects within the school.
We initially decided to make this an option, rather than a requirement. Many business and foundation donors look at the amount of money raised from parents within a school community to determine their own level of giving. When this was an option, we raised only $1,400 from our school community. Our neighbors in the Catholic and Lutheran schools told us that their results were similar, which is why they went to a specific amount per family, as a fee.
Every student benefits from these gifts. The projects to which we apply contributions have included the renovation and refurbishing of the art room, the renovation and remodeling of the gymnasium, the addition of the playground equipment and purchase of additional technology for students. We have recently added the purchase of an additional 15 passenger vehicle, in order to be able to provide transportation for field trips. Currently, renting a bus for a field trip runs $500 to $800, which has to be paid by parents.
We had thought about simply adding these projects to our budget amount and including them in tuition. However, since they are not long-term, and have a start and end date, we did not want to continue charging tuition in a budget that was flexible. The fund raising fee makes the contribution immediately applicable to a specific project, and gives parents a tax deduction they can't take on tuition.
When multi-child discounts are factored in, and our budget is calculated, the average cost per student for one year at MCA is $5,500, which is $1,000 less than the next lowest private school in our area of the city, and almost $4,000 less than Christian schools in the suburbs. Each of our students receives almost $3,500 in benefits which come from money given by outside donors, the church's contributions and the staff's sacrifice of salary and benefits as they consider MCA a ministry calling. All of that was taken into consideration when we decided what we would ask of our school community as a contribution to the school.
We continue to pursue a policy of not taking any public funding with any strings attached to it. Being privately funded is a guarantee of the school's independence and autonomy, which gives us complete freedom to provide a school where the educational philosophy is based on Biblical truth, where our instruction integrates a Christian worldview into each subject area. As a result, we are grateful to each person whose contributions to the school are a recognition of our ministry.
Because of the fundraising fee, we were able to complete the gym renovation project without borrowing any money or paying any interest. The Gies Foundation contributed $150,000, Ozinga Concrete added a generous contribution and the church also paid for the tuck pointing and roof repair. The balance of what was left, which covered the expenses of finishing the project, came from the balance provided by this fee. Over $30,000 was contributed by outside donors to purchase and install the playground equipment, the balance will be covered by this fee. We have received over $20,000 in outside contributions for the purchase of a second 15 passenger vehicle, and this fundraising fee will provide the rest of what we need. We will not have to borrow one dime for any of it, thanks to those who have contributed, including the parents who are cheerfully giving to this fund.
Thank you for your understanding.
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