In Support of Tuition-Based Budgeting

The following are key points in support of tuition based budgeting, as contained in the remarks of the TCS Board Chairman at the parent meeting of March 4, 2008. An important source of this material is author R. Bruce Lockerbie in his book, From Candy Sales to Committed Donors (PAIDEIA, Inc). More information on this author and his book is available at www.paideia-inc.com.

Our school board’s charge to advance the Mission of Trinity is linked to our commitment to financial stability. Each year the Board and its committees set the budget for the coming school year, and myriad factors are considered, including teachers’ salaries, benefits, costs of operating this facility, projected enrollment, and tuition. As you may imagine, it is a challenging process and the economics of our times doesn’t make it any easier. It has been the tradition here at Trinity to set tuition somewhat below the total cost to educate each child. Historically, tuition at Trinity is only sufficient to pay about 85% of the costs, and so the remaining 15% or so must be raised through fundraising. As a result, each year, we must engage in a series of fundraising events to raise some $120,000 just to pay the bills and keep the lights on. This yearly cycle of fundraising to meet the budget because tuition has been set low points up a number of different issues.

  • First, tuition which is set 10, 15 or 20% below the cost to educate a child is artificially depressed. Setting tuition in this mindset incurs a tuition deficit. Each year, in fact, the school begins in a financial hole. Expenses have been cut to the bare bone.
  • A tuition deficit is really a form of false economics because the loss must be compensated for somehow. We are all painfully familiar with the myriad of fundraisers which go on here each year, and I want to publicly commend the Development Committee and its many volunteers who bear the brunt of this burden. But it must also be said that the real suffering is born by our underpaid teachers and staff. A recent Time magazine article notes that the average starting salary of a public school teacher nationwide is $32,000.00; Trinity teachers start well below that figure.
  • I think you will join me in saying that we are richly blessed with a highly skilled, professional, caring faculty. Where would Trinity be without these caring, Christian professionals and their impact upon our children? Yet, by artificially depressing our tuition each year, we must also depress teachers’ salaries, and they barely squeak by each year with a 2 or 3% raise – hardly enough to keep up with the cost of living; certainly not enough to keep up with the price of gasoline. They deserve better. Tuition determines a school’s intention and ability to pay its faculty adequately. Too many schools, while attempting to keep their tuition low, refuse to admit that they don’t pay their faculty enough. Further, we recognize that tuition is the obligation of parents, not of the underpaid faculty and staff.
  • Trinity is certainly a ministry, one that we take very seriously. But we can’t ignore the fact that our school is also a business. We provide a vital service, and we function in a very competitive free market. Parents have many educational choices, now more than ever. No business we know of would start its fiscal year in a financial hole, and it is not proper for us to do so either; nor should we, year after year, go to such great lengths to keep salaries as low as possible. Clearly, artificially depressed tuition translates into low salaries for our faculty. We must and can do better.
  • It is a fallacy to claim that excellence can be achieved while the school’s mission is underfunded. There is no such thing as cheap excellence. A Christian school that pays its employees poorly because of insufficient funding is an unworthy steward in the Kingdom of God.

These and other reasons have led our School Board to conclude that artificially depressing tuition is simply not an appropriate way to operate the School. Instead, we have begun to take steps toward tuition-based budgeting. What this means is that eventually, our tuition structure will provide the income to support the School’s operations, without dependence on development income and outside sources. This is only done after much prayer and study. Rest assured, this is not going to happen all at once, and will be phased in, giving our School community plenty of time to adjust.

In making this decision, we make two pledges to you:

  1. We pledge a continued commitment to a quality Christian education. Quality and excellence require finances to support it as I have discussed. Nonetheless, if we are unable to provide a quality Christian education, we not only fail our mission, but we fail you. That is unacceptable.
  2. We make a commitment to expand our scholarship offerings. We would not increase our tuition rates without expanding our scholarships at the same time. The two go hand-in-hand. We know and fully understand that increased tuition raises many financial concerns among our families and to address those concerns, we want to expand our scholarships.