Incredibly Unique Idaho High School Among the Most Expensive in America

If you’re a parent, you already know first hand from this back to school shopping season that school, in general, is expensive. 

This year, the USA Today estimates that parents with kids in grades K-12 will spend about $875 on supplies, clothes, shoes and other things their child needs going into the new school year. 

READ MORE: The Best Private High Schools in Idaho for 2024 Revealed

That’s just to get the school year started. If your child is playing fall sports, you’ll likely need to help purchase the proper gear for them to have a great season. Even a seemingly cheap sport like Cross Country can start to get pricey when you spring for the proper running shoes, spikes and maybe a GPS watch for your runner.

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Music programs aren’t cheap either. At some point, many schools require their students to purchase their own instrument rather than rent them through the school. Some of those instruments are more expensive than others. We still don’t think our parents have forgiven us for changing our minds from playing the flute to playing the cello. 

These are expenses that even Idaho parents sending their kids to public schools may face. Can you imagine paying tuition on top of that? 

Of course, when levies and bonds fail, public schools need to make tough decisions. This year, we've had school districts in Idaho make the decision to close and consolidate schools, cut staff, add pay-to-play fees or do away with programs students really enjoyed. 

And that’s why as a parent, you may make the decision to pay tuition and send your child to a private high school with an excellent reputation. One where you’re not quite as concerned about academics, sports, clubs, resources and culture suffering when taxpayers vote down bonds and levies. 

Idaho’s Most Expensive Private High School Revealed

The question is…how much are you willing to pay for tuition? A Lot Education put together a list of  the most expensive private high schools in each state. According to Private School Review, the average tuition for a private high school in the Gem State is about $9,092 a year going into the 2024-2025 school year. 

Tuition at the state’s only Catholic high school, is a little bit more than that. Without a supporting parish, it costs $10,210 per year to send your student to Bishop Kelly. That’s still $29,415 cheaper than Idaho’s most expensive high school!

Sun Valley Community School

At the school, students are requested to take four years of English, three years, three years of science, three years of social science and three years of world language classes. Looking at the curriculum flow chart, these are similar to the same offerings we had at our public high school.

In 10th grade, they’ll get the opportunity to hike the wilderness and coastline of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula, go snow-camping and backcountry skiing for three days and get to enjoy a Shakespeare Festival in Oregon for four days.

Juniors get to do a week of climbing/hiking/working on forest service facilities in the Sawtooths in the fall. In the spring they go on a two-day solo backpacking trip in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park.

Seniors get to do a fall campout, winter yurt trips and a two-week senior quest. So…yeah, that’s a little more intense than what we went through in public school! 

What’s the price tag for this unique education? $39,625 per year! If parents want their kids to stay on campus, it’s a total of $69,500 for tuition, room and board.