Demand outstrips supply for New York private schools, and thus tuition creeps upward faster than inflation and the cost of education elsewhere, reaching an astonishing $40,000/year at some schools. At no point does the New York Times article (h/t K.L.) identify what is causing the imbalance: regulatory barriers to entry that make it nearly impossible for new institutions to open and relieve some of the excess demand. Too, some of the excess demand is caused by the large difference in quality between private and public schools, a problem exacerbated by the amount of money public schools waste on union contracts designed to benefit low-quality teachers instead of students.