Lower school fees for their staff's children ?

[cornishcay]

Hi, as a teacher / staff member working in an international school, is there lower / subsidized school fees for their children to study in the IS? Any experience or sharing is appreciated. Thanks.

[PsyGuy]

Typically an IS will provide one tuition/fee waiver/place per employee. Historically, a waiver/place was one of the easier factors to negotiate with an IS, especially if the IS was under its enrollment cap (and even more so if it was well under its enrollment cap) but now as the demand for IS places increases faster than the growth of ISs (with almost nil growth in the first tier), ISs are reducing the number of waivers/places in IT contracts electing to either subsidize waiver/places beyond the 1:1 waiver:employee ration, subsidize all waivers (meaning no free waivers/places) or doing away with them altogether. A common subsidized scheme in first waiver/place is free the second at 50% and beyond that the IT pays full tuition/fees. More recently an increasing trend is 1 full/free waiver/place per family with the next at 50%, and beyond that the IT family pays full tuition/fees, meaning that even a teaching couple is only going to get one waiver/place, even though both parent ITs are employees. Budgets are just getting leaner, and ISs that are at their enrollment cap are losing substantial revenue by giving a waiver/place to an ITs kid rather than a paying one. There is an increase in prevalence at upper tier ISs where parents are offering to pay more than the published tuition to get their child a seat/place which only increases the lost revenue when it instead goes to an ITs kid.

Having white/foreign students from ITs kids used to have a side benefit for the IS, as it made there ISs appear more international, especially in marketing and advertising media. Thats not the case anymore, and while a number of ITs still believe its true, its far cheaper and easier to use stock photos or hire amateur actors for the day.

[Thames Pirate]

Each school is different and of course local laws apply. In many schools in Europe, for example, the tuition benefit may be waived, but the amount is considered compensation, meaning the employee will get hit on their taxes. When you are paying 35-45% tax on 15-25K, your tax bill might be an extra 8K a year. That adds up when it's more than one kid and can be cost prohibitive if you are only on one income.

Some schools provide placements or a certain number. Some don't provide anything. Some might have income guidelines or rules on how much an employee must work (part time might count differently, for example). I am sure there are myriad ways to handle the issue. Your best bet is to ask the school as part of the interview process.