Meducat

Most preschool fees are comparable to the high prices charged by daycare centers, though few preschools will cost as much as full-day care for an infant. Depending on where you live and the quality of the preschool, costs range from $4,000 to $10,000 per year ($333 to $833 monthly), according to the Child Care Information Exchange. The cost will also depend, of course, on how much time your child spends at preschool; a full-day, five-day-a-week program will be much more expensive than a part-time arrangement.  

Most preschools operate on an installment plan, and the more quickly you pay the tuition in full — in two installments, say, rather than monthly — the cheaper it will be for you. Many schools charge interest if the tuition payments are spread out over a period of months.

Parent-run cooperative preschools generally cost less but require more of your time. Fran Brook, a mother of three in Novato, Calif., chose a co-op when she sent her third child to Novato Parents’ Nursery School. “I spent one day there every other week leading the kids in activities the director had planned,” she says. “We also had one evening meeting a month and one or two work Saturdays a year.”

Brook still had to pay something, but she estimates it was half what a regular school would have cost. What’s more, it was a great way to become part of the community. “I was new in town,” she says. “Through my son’s preschool I got to meet other parents with similar interests.”

[via Parent Center]