Most Hawaii private schools are increasing tuition again for the coming school year, bowing to the pressure of rising operating costs, pandemic-related expenses and record inflation.

According to survey data from the nonprofit Hawai‘i Association for Independent Schools, the average annual tuition figures from 92 member private schools for this fall is $12,997 — 3.9% higher than last year and 28% percent higher than the $10,159 average in 2019-2020, the last full school year before the pandemic.

Honolulu is the district with the highest average tuition, at $15,843; Kauai’s is the lowest, at $8,586. The three most expensive nonspecialized private schools — Punahou School, Mid-Pacific Institute and ‘Iolani School — will charge upward of $27,000 for the coming year, roughly 4% higher than the year before.

Yet Hawaii is expected to continue to maintain an extraordinarily high proportion of students attending private schools, as it has for decades. Right now the percentage is almost 17%, said Philip J. Bossert, the association’s executive director. That’s nearly double the national average of 9%, according to federal data.

For the 2020-2021 school year, the first full school year during the COVID-19 pandemic, most local private schools refrained from significantly raising tuition, “both because they were going to be online for the foreseeable future, and also because of huge layoffs — they thought many parents simply couldn’t afford it,” said Bossert, whose Hawaii Association of Independent Schools includes 100 member schools serving almost 37,000 students.

Schools also ramped up their financial aid offerings as the pandemic put many families under extraordinary strain, he said.

But starting in the 2021-2022 school year, as both private and public schools almost universally returned to in-person learning, the increased equipment, materials and personnel needed to mitigate coronavirus spread pushed up operating costs at many schools, Bossert said.

Punahou, for instance, spent millions “hiring extra staff so that their classrooms could be smaller … and also risk management staff, and buying extra equipment, and tons of extra masks and hand sanitizer,” Bossert said. “‘Iolani put up tents all over their campus so they could move classrooms, split them up and have kids eat outside instead of in the cafeteria. They installed an electronic badge system so that they knew who was sitting at every desk and every lab table” to facilitate contact tracing.

Now private schools tend to direct their limited donation streams to cover priorities that can no longer be put off, such as pay raises, construction and repairs, and financial aid has been pulled back slightly at some schools, Bossert said.

FINANCIAL AID INCREASES

At Mid-Pacific Institute in Manoa, “we, like every school and business in the state, are dealing with the incredible inflation that is going on around us,” said Leigh Fitzgerald, vice president of academic affairs. “The cost of supplies, the cost of transportation, the cost of everything to keep the campus running, from electric to water to facilities management … have all gone up.”

She added that Mid-Pacific is focused on pay and professional development for teachers because “we know a lot of our educators have had a lot on their hands these past two years” in the pandemic.

Recognizing the strain that families are under as well with the pandemic and inflation, Fitzgerald said, Mid-Pacific has increased its financial assistance to $5 million, and the typical award there is about $10,000 — a little over one-third of the $28,611 tuition.

One ‘Iolani student’s mother interviewed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser says she’s grateful for that school’s financial support, which has saved the family thousands of dollars — without it, she said, her daughter couldn’t attend the prominent Honolulu private school. Yet making ends meet means the mother still works 60 hours a week between two jobs.

“Lots of penny pinching — I drive an old car and we don’t travel,” she said. “It’s TV nights, not expensive movies in the theater. … But it’s worth it because this is putting my daughter on a better path for success in life.” She asked to have their identities withheld because of the sensitivity and competitive nature of receiving financial aid.

In response to a request to ‘Iolani for comment about rising tuition, Michelle Hee, director of communications and public relations, said in an email that the cost of maintaining small class sizes and low student-teacher ratios is how the school is able to offer quality education and nurturing relationships.

“Thanks to the generosity and support of our donors, each student is awarded a hidden scholarship of more than $12,000 that represents the gap between full tuition and the actual cost of an ‘Iolani education,” Hee added.

“The school’s endowment and annual support from our donors are instrumental in enabling us to fund the tuition gap and keep tuition increases minimal. We are also committed to enrolling qualified students from a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Twenty-five percent of our student body receives need-based scholarships, and we’ve allocated a total of $7.3 million in aid for the 2022-23 school year.”

PANDEMIC PROVES COSTLY

While Punahou tuition will rise by 4.5% to $28,960 to keep up with higher operating costs, school President Mike Latham notes that increase follows last year’s hike of only 2.75%, the smallest since 1999 and the second smallest in 43 years. “We recognized the community had been affected by the economic downturn of the pandemic. … Where we can be sensitive to the overall economic situation, we want to be,” he said.

The pandemic compelled Punahou to increase the total student financial aid it offers to more than $10 million from $8 million, Latham said. Punahou remains committed to diversity and a “need blind” admission process where students are accepted regardless of ability to pay, he said; about one-fourth of Punahou’s nearly 4,000 students receive financial assistance, with the average student award at about $11,360.

Punahou’s heavy costs from the pandemic also include equipment, programming and teacher training for a temporary full pivot to distance learning in 2020, Latham said, and “we did invest a lot more in safety — thermal scanners, air handling, PPE, smaller classes for cohorting.” Also costly, he said, are investing in equipment, technology and teacher training needed to meet rising expectations in higher education and the workforce; and keeping pay and benefits competitive for the school’s nearly 800 employees, who account for 70% of the operating budget.

When asked whether Punahou families should prepare for a tuition hike in 2023-2024 that could match the current 8% inflation rate, Latham said he doesn’t think so but that in the current economic climate, schools everywhere will have to carefully prioritize to avoid overwhelming families.

Still, Punahou’s tuition is dwarfed by the prices of comparable private school on the mainland. At Lakeside School in Seattle, tuition last year was more than $38,000. At Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, next school year will cost $44,500. The Dalton School in New York will charge nearly $58,000.

SPECIAL-NEEDS STUDENTS

In the Hawaii survey, Variety School near Diamond Head reported the highest tuition, at $39,650. But that school specifically serves students with “challenges in the areas of socialization, communicative and language development, and peer relations, including: high functioning autism, anxiety- related disorders and nonverbal learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and mild to moderate cognitive delays,” its website says. Messages left with Variety School were not returned. Bossert said the higher cost is associated with the low teacher-student ratio, and specialized teachers, therapists, equipment and programs for its students.

Meanwhile, what might appear at first glance to be a massive tuition hike at Hawaiian Mission Academy’s high school campus in Makiki is actually just a change the school has made to start making known its “actual tuition,” instead of what students are charged after subsidies from the supporting church system and local churches are included, said Principal Joe Lee.

“With COVID now, with people moving away, with people with loss of income … those subsidy numbers have decreased significantly, and it’s possible in the future that those subsidies will continue to decrease,” Lee said. Only after the churches’ giving plans are finalized during the summer will the school know how much of the $21,513 tuition may be covered, he said.

Might higher tuitions and inflation slow enrollment at Hawaii’s private schools? The pandemic already has sparked unprecedented shifts in the student population, Bossert said. In the 2020-2021 school year, 6,000 students left the regular public schools, and 1,000 students left the private schools, and many changed to homeschooling and charter schools. With so many variables at play when the association does its next enrollment survey in October, Bossert said, “We shall see.”

2022-23 Tuition Report by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd