Start a discussion about any aspect of life in modern America, and this question will inevitably emerge: “How are we going to pay for it?”

That’s certainly the case when talking about any level of education – primary, secondary, higher – and the frequency and fervor with which those talks take place has only intensified here in the first half of the 21st century’s second decade.

Especially in Tennessee.

For families who’ve made the decision, be it through personal choice or student circumstance, to seek out private (or nonpublic, in our state government’s preferred parlance) education opportunities, it’s an ongoing and ever-shifting conversation.

Inflation impacts all aspects of life, including how to get the most out of dollars spent on education. Private schools organizations vary wildly in access to resources and the ability to grow and service their student bodies ably, in the midst of changes brought on by technology, expectations (realistic and not-as-much) and societal forces.

The Ledger’s annual look at secondary education in private schools takes a snapshot of four very different Midstate schools to see how each is able, through direct financial aid and counseling, to help families make the most out of their opportunities not only now, but also after students’ time on their campuses.

Individual Education Account

“I have seen a real change this year, and it has been the same comment I hear a lot of times, ‘My child’s just not getting what they need at that particular school district,’” says Jim Purcell, head of school at Benton Hall Academy. “In many cases, most cases, it’s not the teacher’s fault, it’s not the school’s fault, it’s just that you have 30 children in a classroom, and you’ve got those kids that are really bright, and you’ve got those kids that struggle.

“Everybody in the middle is going to get most of their needs taken care of,” Purcell continues. “The other side, either way, just aren’t going to get what they need.”

Purcell’s Benton Hall experience seeks to guide those students on the “struggle” end of that scale. Founded in 1977, the school focuses on students with specific learning needs and challenges, using small class sizes, specialized instruction and a supportive environment to foster achievement.

It also means Purcell understands that Benton Hall students might not be with the school for the long haul.

The library at St. Cecilia Academy on Harding Pike. The oldest private girls’ school in Nashville, St. Cecilia offers its students and families a number of financial aid options.

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“They could come from a private school or a public school, come to us, kind of get up to speed, and then go on to another school,” he says. “Unfortunately, for a school like us, we have a very small budget, and we try to keep the tuition affordable, so we do not have a lot of self-funded tuition in our budget to give out.

“We sometimes can only give out about $2,000 max to families, and about 25% of our families apply,” he continues. “Having said that, I’ve been very excited about some of the things that have come up with the Tennessee Department of Education, including the biggest one, the IEA or the Individual Education Account.”

Tennessee’s IEA program, launched in the 2016-17 school year, was designed to provide more individualized educational opportunities for students with certain disabilities. To be eligible for the program, the student has to be enrolled in a Tennessee public school for at least a year.

Montgomery Bell Academy has opted out, for now, of the state’s controversial Education Savings Accounts program.

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Funds that would otherwise be used for such students in public schools are instead deposited into individualized accounts, overseen by the state and parents/guardians can use them for approved expenses, including tuition and fees for private schools.

Purcell says students from multiple Midstate counties have been able to take part in the IEA program via Benton Hall, with some families receiving up to $15,000 toward a school year’s tuition.

Purcell’s biggest complaint with the program? Its strict cutoff date for new applications: April 15, a time frame where many families are still focused on last year’s taxes, not next year’s school needs.

“There are still a lot of families that come to me on April 16th, and they want to utilize the (IEA) for the following school year and I have to tell them about that cutoff,” he says. “There’s not an appeal process, and it doesn’t make sense that the state does not extend that until after the school year because many families wait until after the school year to decide if they’re going to give (public school) one more chance.

“That’s my soapbox: I wish the program would be better publicized, and I wish for a better enrollment period.”

Education Savings Account

Another state-created school choice funding program, the Education Savings Account or ESA, garnered a lot of headlines and criticism at the outset, mainly for its targeted application to Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties, some of the more progressive voting areas of the state.

At its core, ESAs are funded by dollars that would normally be allocated to a student in a public school but are instead given directly to parents in the form of a savings account. Critics of the program contend that it diverts money away from public schools, could be rife for fraud attempts, would support certain religious organizations above others using state money and exacerbate socioeconomic disparity among school systems.

The program weathered early legal challenges after its 2019 adoption into law but is currently in place for the 2023-24 school year. Thirty schools in the Midstate area are taking advantage of the program for their students, including St. Cecilia Academy, the oldest private girls’ school in Nashville.

“We work with each family regardless of the financial situation because we do not want cost to be a barrier for attending our school,” says Anne Michelle Millican, St. Cecilia’s director of admissions. “ESA is another option available to make SCA affordable for families.

“We have several students who were able to come to St. Cecilia Academy with the help of ESA,” she continued. “We encourage families who might qualify for ESA to contact the ESA program coordinators to determine their eligibility.”

Millican said around 35% of SCA’s student body received some sort of financial aid this school year, the process of identifying financial aid not only on the secondary, but higher education level is a crucial part of the overall educational experience at the Catholic-affiliated school.

“Our full staff of college counselors works individually with each student and family so that the search for financial aid is based on their needs and in accordance to the schools in which they apply,” Millican said. “The class of 2023 averaged more than $214,000 in aid per student, and scholarships were awarded for academic merit, leadership, service and the arts.”

Foregoing public funds

That said, other private schools in the Midstate are taking either a “wait and see” or “it’s not for us” tack on using ESAs.

Juanita Traughber, director of marketing and communications for University School of Nashville, says USN falls under the latter category.

“We are prioritizing how to best serve USN families without removing public education dollars from our counterparts with Metro Nashville Public Schools,” she says. “We know that our robust need-based financial aid, serving one in five USN students, already meets the demonstrated need of families that the Tennessee ESA Program seeks to provide and that the $7,000 voucher alone will not cover tuition at USN.”

USN’s reputation for innovative curriculum, especially in arts and sciences programs, along with its emphasis on diversity and community, can bring along with it a hefty annual price tag for interested students and families.

But that’s why the school maintains a robust overall endowment, so they can offer need-based financial aid at a higher level. “It’s really important for us, as an institution, to have socioeconomic diversity within our community,” says Scott Collins, USN’s director of enrollment. “Making those funds available, having enough financial aid, knowing that more and more families moving forward are probably going to request financial aid.

“Families that maybe, traditionally, 10 years ago, wouldn’t necessarily have considered financial aid, but are now in a particular income bracket where they would now qualify for financial aid.”

University School of Nashville chooses primarily to offer financial aid from its own endowment funds.

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It’s that kind of institutional self-awareness that pushes schools like USN to seek public support in different ways, other than directly from the state. “In addition to (endowments), we offer fundraisers for various needs across the school, and one of our fundraisers is called USN Evening Classes,” Traughber says.

“It’s a collection of 150 one-night courses for the Nashville community where our parents, our trustees, our faculty members, as well as just business owners and entrepreneurs and restaurateurs throughout Nashville will volunteer their time and teach a class on, say, how to make pretzels from scratch, or how to determine your estate plan.

“People will pay $20 to $80 for those classes, and outside of the materials, all of the money that they pay for the class goes straight to our endowment for need-based financial aid,” she continues. “So our role is to provide for Nashville families a place where their student belongs, no matter what their race, gender orientation, socioeconomic status, family composition. We’re glad to be able to provide families the opportunity as they’re choosing the best educational environment for their family.”

Not a good fit, for now

Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-boys school founded in 1867 and one of the Midstate’s most rigorous academic institutions, is taking the “wait and see” side of the ESA equation, at least for this school year.

“We’re very supportive of the ESA program, but we as a school have not become a part of that yet. It doesn’t mean we won’t, and we will reevaluate that this year,” says Greg Ferrell, MBA’s director of admission and financial aid. “[Many of the] 17% [of MBA families] who are receiving financial aid fall in the income bracket of $0-50,000, and they certainly would qualify for ESA.

“But MBA uses the PSAT as our standardized testing. Our students take the PSAT in grades 8 through 11 and then, of course, take either SAT or ACT after that,” Ferrell continues. “Part of the ESA program involves some standardized testing, more of the Tennessee state standardized testing that we would have to do. We just have not found a way for students to be able to take the days necessary, take that out of the classroom and be able to do that.

“Plus, financial aid for MBA is confidential; our admissions process is need-blind. So, in other words, when a student is applying to MBA, the admissions committee does not factor into whether that student needs financial aid. In fact, they don’t even know. I’m the only one of those that knows and it’s not brought up,” he notes. “And so, pulling a child out of class for several days of TCAP or any other standardized testing specifically for that, I think, right now, we see that as somewhat of a bug in that it pretty much outs that kid as being a financial aid recipient.

“Frankly, we feel like we can get those families that would qualify for financial aid through our own program that they would be able to receive through an ESA,” Ferrell concludes. “Which, if you think about the big picture there, that opens up ESA money for other kids.”

Getting creative

Much like the rest of life these days, seeking the optimal place for secondary education is much more complicated than times gone by; paying for it even more so.

But also like the rest of life, you don’t know what resources are out there waiting for you until you ask. Even if it means asking those closest to you.

“There’s money out there,” says Benton Hall’s Purcell. “I can’t really tell parents to give them the exact thing where to go. They really have to do their homework.

“I know from going to a small private school growing up and having a large family that my mom and dad wouldn’t have been able to do it without family help.”

And the asking process can definitely include the institutions themselves.

“[At Benton Hall,] we only have 55 students total,” Purcell notes “If I have 10 tenth-graders and I’ve only got six freshmen, and I could add on more freshmen without having to add on more staff, then for the few dollars I can offer for tuition assistance, I can go to my board and say, ‘Can we give this family, just this one time, this one year, and let them know it’s this year only?’ because we’ve got a spot here, and even if we get $12,000, that’s $12,000 we weren’t going to get and another student.

“So, you know, we’re kind of creative on that,” he continues, “If there’s a space there, and you can add a student on without having to spend more on an extra staff member, it’s kind of a no-brainer.”