Community Commitment

PH Community School is committed to our neighbors in Northeast Kansas City. That commitment includes making our programming accessible to as many people as possible and experimenting with different financial models that aim to provide more equitable educational opportunities.

Tuition for the 2025-2026 school year is determined by families based on where they assess themselves in the Green Bottle Method shown below. Tuition ranges from $3,600-$5,400. Your contribution covers the teacher’s salary and classroom materials. Tuition does not include student’s personal materials or other trip/event associated costs. Fundraising efforts will help offset additional costs.

Tuition Model: Green Bottle Method

  • I am comfortably able to meet all my *basic needs

  • I own my home OR I rent a higher-end property

  • I am employed or do not need to work to meet my needs

  • I have access to financial savings

  • I have an **expendable income

  • I sometimes stress about meeting my *basic needs but still regularly achieve them

  • I have stable housing

  • I am employed

  • I might have access to financial savings

  • I have some **expendable income

  • I often stress about meeting *basic needs

  • I rent lower-end properties or have unstable housing

  • I am unemployed or underemployed

  • I have no access to savings

  • I have no or very limited **expendable income

* Basic Needs include food, housing, health care, and transportation.
** Expendable Income might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, buy new clothes, books, and similar items each month, etc.

The Green Bottle Method scale is intended to be a map, inviting each family to take inventory of their financial resources and look deeper at their levels of privilege or systemic barriers. There is no exact formula that determines what each of us can afford, because income is not the only determining factor. For example, your relationship to money might also be affected by being a caregiver, your access to generational wealth, and/or costs related to a disability. This method is just one way to challenge inequities in our society and work towards economic justice as a community. The goal is to create educational experiences where every child is able to fully participate and the educators are compensated fairly.

This image and framework was originally created by Alexis J. Cunningfolk | www.wortsandcunning.com with additions from Britt Hawthorne | www.embracingequity.org

Why not scholarships?

Scholarship systems can disincentivize people with fewer economic means from pursuing education in four ways:

  1. Dependence on scholarships place undue uncertainty onto an application process.

  2. Scholarship-based systems create sticker shock while leaving the final price for any prospective student a mystery. This complicates decisions to apply.

  3. Scholarship-based systems devalue people with less economic power by asking them to prove themselves worthy. These people must work harder to apply.

  4. Scholarship-based systems require greater administrative effort to process and review applications for scholarships.

Feedback

PH Community School is always open to learning. Please share any feedback you have on how we can create a more equitable model.