The XX Factor

The $40K Junior Year (Tutors Extra)

Remember the NYC school with students running up three-figure tutoring bills ? According to the Wall Street Journal , tuition at the Riverdale Country School will go up to $40,450 next fall , the first time tuition at a New York private school has topped $40,000.

For that kind of money, it does seem like they ought to be able to teach the students to succeed in their classwork without pricey extra help, but that’s not the primary lesson being taught at a Riverdale. The charitable way to consider the message sent by that kind of bill is that a good education is worth almost any price, and the less Pollyanna take on it would be that it’s the exclusivity, not the education, that’s worth the money. Either way, as educational consultant and author Victoria Goldman told the Journal , “Nobody’s complaining about the price. Nobody.”