Seattle’s Top Private Schools Now Cost Nearly $52,000 a Year, Widening the City’s Education Divide

The numbers become starker when measured against the broader economic reality of the region. The median household income in Washington state is approximately $95,000. A single year of tuition at either institution would consume roughly half of what a typical Washington family earns in twelve months, placing these schools well beyond the reach of the vast majority of Seattle residents.

Financial aid programs exist at some schools. Lakeside awarded $10 million in need-based assistance during the current school year, a meaningful sum that has allowed some lower-income students to attend. But the structural question that aid cannot fully answer is whether Seattle’s most prestigious private schools are drifting away from their stated missions of opportunity and becoming instead a reflection of the city’s widening wealth divide. As tuition continues to climb and the distance between private and public schooling grows, that question is becoming harder for these institutions to avoid.