A private Manhattan day care is set to hike prices by up to 20% — and blames the tuition spike in part on the city’s “destabilizing” universal preschool expansion, The Post has learned.
Manhattan Schoolhouse, an Upper East Side chain of daycare centers serving kids ages 3 months to 5 years old, shocked families in a January email update asking for nearly $4,000 per month in tuition costs for the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. program, a 20% increase from the previous year.
“This increase represents the equivalent of a $16,000 pre-tax raise for a working parent—an impossible amount for most families to absorb in a single year,” fumed one dad, who declined to provide his name due to fears of retaliation.
The tuition increase was announced just weeks before the unveiling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “2-K for All” plan, as the administration moves forward on Hizzoner’s campaign promise to provide free child care for kids ages 6 weeks to 5 years.
Critics, including teachers, have warned that the city is growing its universal childcare programs without addressing pay inequities between educators at public and private schools — like Manhattan Schoolhouse — contracted to run pre-K and 3-K through the city Department of Education.
The city’s expansion of child care seats — and its recruitment of educators for higher-paying gigs — is “destabilizing” to her small business, said Manhattan Schoolhouse co-founder and CEO Kamila Faruki.
“The teachers who are working for DOE, their salaries are much higher, so we are competing with them,” she told The Post. “Because of the way it’s structured, we lose a lot of good teachers … there’s so many programs that closed because they couldn’t keep up with this.
“What it does [mean] is we will have to increase the salaries of our teachers,” she added, and “the cost has to go somewhere.”
Similar concerns have been raised by early childhood providers across the city — both private and public — according to City Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, chair of the subcommittee on early childhood education.
Providers “repeatedly raised concerns about the different financial pressure they are under as the system expands” during a recent subcommittee hearing, she told The Post.
“Our committee will continue elevating these concerns, and pressing the administration to respond to providers who are feeling this pressure and looking for real solutions.”
competitive Upper East Side daycare lauded for its “affordable” pricing is slated to hike its tuition for some parents by 20% this upcoming school year – with its co-founder partially blaming the cost jump on competition with the city’s ambitious universal preschool expansion, The Post has learned.
Faruki said her business is also facing skyrocketing operating costs, as well as doubling liability insurance and even a 20% food price hike in the last year.
“All these costs were going up double-digits, and we were really trying to keep as minimal a cost increase as possible,” Faruki said, claiming Manhattan Schoolhouse has priced itself 30–35% below competitors.
“Last year is where we said ‘this has become unsustainable,’” she sighed, “and we have to really change.”
Nearly 100 families signed a petition against the price increase and called for a town hall to discuss it with Manhattan Schoolhouse leadership, according to documents reviewed by The Post — but school officials instead sent a Feb. 13 “finalized” rate, lowering the price tag for some by a measly $100.
The “devastating” 11th hour move also made it far too late for families to even consider another child care option in a neighborhood filled with lengthy, competitive waitlists, parents said.
“Day care is not a luxury, this is not like renting a yacht,” one Manhattan Schoolhouse mom said. “It’s the cheapest option because we can’t afford a nanny … and there’s only one other day care in this specific part of the Upper East Side.
“Bottom line, they’re f—ing over the Upper East Side,” she said, “because we don’t have a choice.”
“[To spend] $30,000 to 40,000 a year, that’s devastating to families,” another mom said. “Not only is there no justification for that, but they’re not making anything better.”
Danielle Avissar, an Upper East Side mom with two children in Manhattan Schoolhouse’s universal child care program under the DOE said she pays over $30,000 a year on after-school care alone — and is expected to pay $300 more starting next school year.
“The reality is that, if you’re a working parent and you have a career, you’re going to have to pay [more], or you’re going to have to find a caretaker,” she said.
“It’s really unfortunate, but I hope that New York is not going to end up just being a place for wealthy, rich people … but also parents and families who are fighting to stay every single day.”