Private school tuition in New York City is hitting a new and eye-popping benchmark: more than $70,000 a year, putting some K–12 schools well above the price of elite colleges, Bloomberg reports.

Several of the city’s most prestigious schools — including Spence, Dalton, and Nightingale-Bamford on Manhattan’s Upper East Side — now charge above that level, according to school disclosures and reporting by Bloomberg.

Across 15 private schools citywide, tuition jumped a median 4.7% this year, rising faster than inflation.

Private education in New York has never been cheap, but the pace of increases has accelerated sharply. Median tuition has climbed from about $39,900 in 2014 to well over $50,000 today, leaving even high-earning families feeling the squeeze.

“Each time you cross into a new $10,000 increment, it feels like a milestone,” said Barbara Scott, executive director of the Parents League of New York, which advises families navigating private school admissions.

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“But for some families, the numbers are what the numbers are, and they’re looking for a stellar education for their children and they’re willing to pay what’s necessary to secure that experience,” Scott said.

Schools say rising tuition reflects higher operating costs — particularly teacher salaries, which must keep pace with New York’s soaring cost of living to attract and retain staff.

Tuition often bundles in supplies, meals and enrichment, while big-ticket extras like multi-day trips can push costs even higher.

“We’re not talking about going to the Statue of Liberty or the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Scott said. “We are talking about going to that eighth-grade trip to Washington for three days, or that trip to the Freedom Trail in Boston when you’re a sixth grader, or the ninth-grade trip to Europe.”

At Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, Head of School Noni Thomas López said tuition is set by the board of trustees after reviewing the school’s full operating needs, including financial aid.

FINANCIAL AID FOR 22%

This year, Poly Prep provided more than $14.5 million in aid to about 22% of its students, according to the school.

Some schools crossed the $70,000 threshold earlier — and are still climbing. Avenues: The World School, in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, charged $72,300 last year and will raise tuition to $75,300 next year, among the highest in the city.

School leaders argue that financial aid is part of the equation.

Avenues fully funds its operations through tuition and does not solicit additional donations, according to Tara Powers, the school’s head of communications. The school distributed more than $20 million in financial aid to over 20% of students and offers discounts for families who pay tuition upfront.

“There is definite sticker shock for some families — especially those relocating to New York from perhaps not major cities — but there’s also acceptance,” said Sharon Decker, an education consultant who helps families apply to private schools.

“There’s an expectation that just as the cost of living goes up, that tuition will go up every year, whether it’s preschool or college.”

Even so, New York stands apart.

The national average tuition at top private schools was just under $50,000 last year, according to S&P Global Ratings, which analyzed 53 independent schools nationwide. While prices are rising elsewhere, most remain well below New York’s upper tier.

In South Florida, Gulliver Prep’s senior-year tuition will be $56,100, while Miami Country Day School will charge $56,400.

Outside Philadelphia, The Baldwin School plans to charge $48,402 for high school.

On the West Coast, Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles will charge $54,900, with potential additional fees of up to $10,000, while Sage Hill School in Newport Beach set upper-school tuition at $58,100.

For many New York families, budgeting assumes steady annual increases.

A 3% to 5% hike is what most parents plan for, said Robin Aronow, who has guided families through admissions for more than two decades at School Search NYC.

Still, she’s seeing more families lean on aid — sometimes modest amounts — “so that their family can breathe a little bit more or take a vacation.”

Interest in financial aid has picked up noticeably, Decker said, along with growing curiosity about parochial schools, including Catholic and Jewish institutions, which typically cost less than independent private schools.

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MAMDANI AXING GIFTED PROGRAMS

The broader economic strain isn’t limited to education. Sky-high school tuition adds to frustrations over housing, food and childcare costs across the region — pressures that helped fuel the surprise election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani last year.

Some parents say uncertainty around public education policy has reinforced their decision to go private.

Mamdani’s proposal to eliminate the city’s gifted and talented elementary programs is one of several unknowns — alongside shifting geopolitics and rapid advances in artificial intelligence — that have unsettled families, according to Emily Glickman, an education consultant with 27 years of experience at Abacus Guide Educational Consulting.

Those concerns, she said, are pushing parents toward private schools — “whether they can afford it, or barely afford it.”