It's expensive to raise kids anywhere, but it takes extra money and consideration when thinking about school options in China.
My husband is a teacher and we would most likely choose the home school option after our son was able to experience kindergarten and get better socialized, not to mention better his Chinese skills.
If you're raising kids in Beijing or elsewhere in China, please feel free to give your opinion on the article!
Is It More Expensive to Raise Kids in Beijing?
by pjsheeps | Posted on Jan 17 2012 |
One of the things that I feel most guilty about is…well, me. More specifically, all of the wonderful things that my parents had to give up in order to have and raise me: extravagant trips around the world, an ocean-front villa in Thailand, fancy date nights, etc.
For those who think that I’m exaggerating, consider this: my four-year stint at the University of California Davis cost my parents approximately US$60,500, and that's just in tuition alone. Factor in the cost of textbooks, rent, groceries and a summer in Spain, and that figure becomes much higher.
In addition, current estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture place the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 years at US$226,920, the equivalent of about ¥1.5 million. This amount includes housing, child care and the big money drain: school tuition.
Thankfully, my parents were spared the duty of footing the bill for much of my lower education thanks to a combination of four years of U.S public schooling, followed by another eight years at a Beijing international school on IBM’s dime. These eight years alone, I calculated, would have cost my family about ¥1.4 million—just ¥100,000 short of what the USDA estimates as the total cost of raising a kid for 18 years. Scary. No wonder then, that my father insists that if my tuition hadn't been covered, “we wouldn’t have moved to China period!”
Brian Hutson is the founding partner of financial advisory firm Hutson Associates, and has come across his fair share of expats in his line of work. He says: “Expat parents repeatedly tell me that the most expensive portion of raising children in Beijing is school fees. I think that this is partially because most Western countries offer free public education, making tuition expenses a non-issue.”
Beijing international school fees have been known to reach up to approximately ¥200,000 or US$32,000 per year for high school students. This is almost the equivalent of a year’s undergraduate tuition at Harvard. “The cost of some of the schools here is insane,” says father-of-one and entrepreneur Sam Goodman. “I mean, I attended what was possibly one of the best boarding schools in Canada growing up, and it still wasn't nearly as expensive as certain schools here.”
Suffice it to say, for those without the elusive expat package, raising a child in Beijing can be a very expensive business. As a result, families in this category are often forced to think long and hard about their children’s schooling. The decision comes down to not just finding a good fit for their children, but also finding the right balance between quality of education and price.
“The headache, the headache!” says long-term Beijing resident and mother Astra Holmes. “We are paying out of pocket, so we have to consider the level of education and weigh it against how useful it will be later in life and the cost to us. I’ve found it very difficult to balance my high expectations and big eyes—so much of our decision depends on what we can afford.”
Ultimately, Beijing parents have three main choices. “The way I see it, you either go 100 percent local, go 100 percent international, or aim for something somewhere in between, which is what my wife and I did,” says Goodman. “There is a small handful of schools here that offer a decent combination of Eastern and Western education. These not only cost less than big international schools, but also offer a Chinese immersion element—a necessity while living in China, if you ask me.”
Tom Miller also feels that a solid foundation in Mandarin is paramount, and for that reason has enrolled his two children in a nursery class at a bilingual school. However, he concedes that eventually he will have to send his children to an international school. “When I realized how much my children’s schooling would cost me, it was like a sudden dawning,” Miller says. Suzi Roberts is a mother and educator whose job allows her children to attend an international school at no extra cost. Even so, school tuition and family expenses remain a primary talking point among her and her peers. Roberts says that homeschooling has emerged as a popular fourth option for many parents, and adds that financial aid packages are now available at some international schools, though most require parents to lay bare their financial situation.
Fortunately, school tuition aside, all other expenses can be significantly lower than in the West. Despite rising prices, groceries, clothing, transportation and food can still be purchased for a mere fraction of Western prices as long as parents are willing to go local.
And therein lies the rub. Parents always want the best for their children and for some families in Beijing, that means forking over fistfuls of cash for imported baby formula, organic food, name-brand clothing and vitamins. For many, weekly trips to Jenny Lou’s and April Gourmet are the norm, despite the fact that Sanyuanli and Jingkelong offer the same items for less—albeit a little worse for the wear.
“In the end, how much parents spend raising their children in Beijing really boils down to lifestyle choices,” says Goodman. “I think that it is extremely easy to live either very cheaply or very expensive here.”
Hutson agrees: “Everyone who moves here certainly has the option of a lifestyle that is either more expensive or cheaper than back home. Ultimately, what is most important is that families are living within their means.”
Want to calculate about how much you spend on your children each year? Go to www.bankrate.com (amounts are shown in US dollars).
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