Some private schools in New York City cost more than $50,000 a year - more than many colleges

The cost to attend some private K-12 schools in New York City has crept above $50,000 annually, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The rising cost in just the last five years is steep. Median tuition and fees at Manhattan private schools are $44,050 compared to $35,867 five years before, The Journal reported, citing figures from the National Association of Independent Schools.

While private school tuition regularly outpaces the rate of inflation, a 23% jump in five years is still significant, especially when noting that $50,000 tuition is higher than the average cost to attend private college in the US.

For the 2017-18 school year, the average cost of tuition and fees at private colleges is $34,699, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Further, there are nearly 40 American colleges that cost more than $65,000 a year, a shocking figure which calls into question whether the current model of higher education is sustainable. Four years of college at $65,000 a year results in a family paying more than a quarter million dollars for four years of higher education.

Yet, if the cost of private school tuition were to hold flat at $50,000, a family who paid for one child to attend school for their primary and secondary education would pay $900,000 over the course of their pre-college schooling.

About 20% of students in Manhattan private schools received financial aid, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, compared to 90% who receive some type of financial aid at private four-year colleges.

The rising cost of private schools in Manhattan has led some to question the sustainability of their pricing model.

"It's just a bad problem getting worse," John Allman, head of private Trinity School, told The Journal. "The funding model for independent schools like ours is broken."