Tutor to Kylie Jenner and Dr. Dre’s daughter lifts lid on how the rich spend up to $32,000-a-month on private teachers
Forget the school bus — these kids are flying first class.
A private tutor to the ultra rich and famous — including the Jenners and Dr. Dre — is lifting the lid on what its like to work with their kids and how some parents fork out as much as $32,000 a month in fees.
Celebrity tutor Tiffany Sorya — who once dissected Catcher in the Rye with Kylie Jenner as she had her makeup applied — told The Post homeschooling demand soared during the pandemic and has now entrenched itself as an increasingly appealing path.
“This started in LA,” said the founder of Novel Education Group. “Families of a certain type — celebrities, high profile CEOS who were traveling a lot — they needed something that fits their lifestyle.”
The richest families find private tutors are much more flexible than traditional schooling options, and for the right price elite educators can be at their beck and call around the clock as they jet set around the world.
Others harbor security and privacy concerns for their children at regular campuses — no matter how exclusive or expensive.
“The idea of being locked into one location for ten months out of the year is not going to work for them,” Sorya said.
The private educator was tasked with supervising the homeschooling of Dr. Dre’s daughter, Truly, whose creative pursuits made a traditional education unappealing and largely unfeasible.
“The parents still want standards, they want structure,” she said. “But they also want to have the ability to nurture their kids’ interests outside the classroom. They aren’t so interested in the prom and football games. They’re busy making albums.”
Demand for high-end homeschooling has become so intense that some of Sorya’s clients are withdrawing their children from some of New York and Los Angeles’ most prestigious private schools to pivot to remote education.
The costs of top-tier homeschooling, Sorya said, have rocketed accordingly.
While her packages vary, a full-time tutor costs roughly $16,000 a month. Those instructors are available at all times and will jump on a plane to meet with their students as needed.
Some clients, Sorya said, hire two such tutors to work with their children at a cost of $32,000 a month.
Typically, clients have their assigned in-home teacher sign airtight non-disclosure agreements to guard against leaks and loose lips.
Other especially demanding clients have asked Sorya to find them tutors without any personal attachments so they can focus solely on their children.
That includes significant others, pets — and even plants.
While demand for elite tutoring has been driven by the wealthy and well-known, Sorya said homeschooling has become popular across the board.
Middle class parents with children who aspire to show business stardom are now pulling their children from traditional schools and switching to online or homeschooling options.
“They are going to auditions all the time and traveling,” Sorya said. “They can’t do that with a regular school schedule.”
Some families, she noted, are even moving out of states with onerous homeschooling restrictions — like New York — for more hospitable areas like Florida and Texas.
“We definitely see families moving,” she said. “There’s one very high profile Manhattan family we’re working with that has a son with learning gaps from COVID. They have a home in New York and one in Connecticut. They’ve submitted an intent to homeschool using their Connecticut address because it’s much harder in New York.”
While colleges still retain a bias towards applicants from traditional schools, Sorya said the stigma is slowly lifting as the practice becomes widespread.
“I think you are only going to see this trend continue,” she said. “The entire educational industry is being disrupted.”
