On a cool evening in early May, emissaries for 11 of Europe’s finest prep schools mingled with the Upper East Side set at the Pratt Mansions, a classic, Beaux-Arts edifice erected across the street from Central Park.
Officials from Milton Abbey School were there and Benenden School and Westminster School. For two hours they pitched New York’s well-heeled parents on the benefits of sending their teens across the Atlantic to study: morning rows on the Thames, breakfast in a Hogwarts-like dining hall, ski trips in the Alps — all for just a bit more than the roughly $70,000 they’d pay for private schooling in Manhattan.
Then there’s the issue of President Donald Trump, or more specifically, getting away from him. No one would speak openly on the record about the Trump factor — fear of his administration runs high in education circles — but in private conversation after private conversation, it was a key reason cited for the sudden uptick in families’ interest in overseas schools.
It’s the same aversion to the Trump world view that’s sparked a pickup in Americans looking into how to get a Golden Visa in Portugal or how far their retirement savings would go in Costa Rica.
That night at Pratt Mansions, Rachel Bailey, the headmistress at Benenden, was perhaps the most forthright. She listed “a change in administration” and “geopolitical trends” as issues that were helping fuel the increase in American students she expects in the fall.
These trends, of course, cut both ways. For years, conservative Americans have been pulling their kids out of schools they find too “woke,” a theme that Trump used to help propel him to victory last year. Both sides of the aisle vent about the politicization of education.
“You hear about Americans who are not very happy with education for all sorts of reasons,” said Guy Hopkins, registrar for Westminster, which traces its beginnings back to at least the 14th century.
For Next Step Education, the London-based group that organized the school fair at Pratt, this was its first foray into the US. It normally targets wealthy families in places like Dubai and Singapore but decided to add a stop in New York this spring after fielding more inquiries from parents here the past couple years.
David Wellesley Wesley, who chairs the group’s board of trustees, sidestepped questions about Trump but acknowledged that “political instability is certainly a factor.” He attributes the spike in interest largely to the “structure and the rigor and the tradition” of British prep schools, which, he says, has a growing appeal for New York parents worried about how technology is affecting their kids’ development.
The U.K. schools — which accounted for all but one of the 11 institutions represented that night — have a big incentive of their own now to court more foreign students. Shortly after returning to power last year, the Labour Party extended a 20% value-added tax to private education tuition, a move that’s cutting into enrollment numbers at some schools.
Before the levy, “two professional parents could afford just about the fees of a prestigious school,” said Tasos Aidonis, director of Westminster’s boarding and upper school. “Now that’s pushed outside the realm of the possible.”
Yet, for wealthy New Yorkers prepared to pay close to $70,000 a year to send their kids to top local prep schools, coming up with another $10,000 or so for a year of schooling in the U.K., with all meals and housing included, is a small stretch.
“It’s kind of a similar cost,” Aidonis said. “If anything, it seems to be a saving.”
Shana Cooper-Silas made the trek into Manhattan for the evening, her two daughters, Taylor and Kory, in tow. Cooper-Silas had been looking at prep schools in the Northeast for them when she saw the European school fair pop up in her Instagram feed.
“I’m open to it because of what’s happening in America right now,” said Taylor, 13. Later, when asked to elaborate, Cooper-Silas expressed concern about “the increasing social and political tensions in the U.S.” and how that would affect her kids.
“As a Black, educated family,” she said in an e-mail, “we’re exploring options that provide both academic excellence and emotional safety for our daughters.”
At the Pratt, the Cooper-Silases and a few dozen other families wended their way slowly through the tables the schools had set up along the first floor.
Wellesley Wesley, the board chair at Next Step, was pleased with the turnout. He’s already planning for the next New York fair — in spring 2026. “We’ll just double down on New York.”
