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Native Language School And Balavihar -fee

Discussion in 'General Discussions - USA & Canada' started by Vedhavalli, Aug 21, 2018.

  1. Vedhavalli

    Vedhavalli Platinum IL'ite

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    Hi,
    I'm thinking to enroll my child to learn mother tongue thru a local volunteer school. It holds 1 class per week, roughly 30-32 classes. The fee is 400 - 450$ plus additional things for annual day , field trips, temple trips etc.

    Also the balavihar/balavikas classes are 1000$ to 1500$ quite far away from my place more 50 min drive. That's also one class per week.

    Are these fee rate nominal?
    I don't have any idea , I thought native language is taught in parks won't recur fee , I could also volunteer there .
    Pls pour some insights
     
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  2. gknew

    gknew Gold IL'ite

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    Hi..
    I am not an expert in this US education system and I am just living in US for past 2 and a half years. I am just giving my input since I enquired in native language school recently...
    I went to a tamil school in my area and it was 180$ per year. One class per week.
    They didn't mention anything about annual day, field trips etc. May be they will charge separately..
    Looking for experts replies...Following this..
     
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  3. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    Hi OP to give you some idea of running a native language school (no clue on Balavihar)

    1. To run a native language school, if its an affiliate school they need to pay affiliation cost to the organization ( can’t name it but there are two big organizations catering to whole US).

    2. Affiliate school needs space like church or library that charges a reasonable amount as rent which depends on cost of living.

    3. Apart from rent school needs to carry building and liability insurance

    4. To register as not for profit, school needs to pay some fees to the state department.

    5. School need to provide books to children. Usually there will be 2-3 sets of textbooks.

    6. Some schools provides snacks to children on some special days or all days they have classes.

    7. If school conducts annual day school needs to rent space/ auditorium in local public schools and that comes with additional expenses too.

    8. On top of all these expenses some schools provides some enrichment programs with the help of local talents or visiting artists to encourage and indulge children in learning native language along with culture and history.

    9. All teachers who are part of the school are volunteers only.

    10. Need to include other miscellaneous expenses like filing tax returns and/or hiring professional who could do paperwork for the school.

    I am not justifying 1000-1500 expenses but with a small non profit organization (native lang school) easily the expenses will come to atleast 175-300/- per kid for the year depending on the cost of living where the school is run. Hope this helps.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2018
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  4. Vedhavalli

    Vedhavalli Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you so much for providing detailed inputs!
    Good analytics too. I don't have close relatives or best friends here to give much needed info.
    I have to monitor every $ I spend is worth or not esp with a single income house hold with rising costs.
     
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  5. jskls

    jskls IL Hall of Fame

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    I can totally understand. You can get books and teach your kids at home. That’s doable.
     

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