$83 Million Raised for New Manhattan School – The Avenues

The Avenues school in Manhattan was featured in The New York Times Magazine recently.  The article raised some interesting questions about what money can and should buy in the way of education.  The Avenues is a new school, started by Chris Whittle and Beno Schmidt, who are no strangers to starting schools.  They managed to raise $83,000,000 (yes, $83 million) to fund the school, which includes a state of the art school space, an organic kitchen, and a student-teacher ratio of 8 to 1.

Maybe there is no end to what parents will pay if they think it will give their children a leg up.  But the question has to be asked, when is enough enough?  And what exactly are these students getting that others schools don’t offer?  Private school tuition has been creeping up year after year.  The $43,000 tuition is not that far from the average New York City tuition of $38,000.  It will be interesting to see how Avenues does over the next few years.  As the new paint smell wears off and the usual difficulties of running a school emerge, will the price tag still be warranted?  Tell us what you think.