Why Use a Sliding Fee Scale?

I have chosen to implement a sliding fee scale because it better aligns with my personal teaching philosophy. In particular, I believe it helps me uphold the following principles: 

• Everyone deserves access to high-quality, meaningful educational materials that work for them. 

• The world is a better place when everyone has strong critical thinking and communication skills. 

• Our individual classroom experiences are more robust, interesting, and reflective of the real world when they involve participants from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds and perspectives. 
• Homeschooling is often economically inaccessible, and removing barriers to that access provides more learners with the chance to find educational situations that work best for their needs. This is especially true of neurodiverse learners.

These are not new beliefs, but I was struggling to find a way to make these beliefs align with the reality of running a business, which is expensive on both the professional (taxes, platform fees) and personal (time, childcare) levels. How do I make sure I can sustainably provide materials that meet the standards learners deserve while also upholding the principles listed above? 

In finding a partial solution, I found this piece by Britt Hawthorne (“Embracing an Equitable Sliding Scale”) useful and eye-opening. 

A sliding fee scale essentially provides a path for a more equitable and accessible pricing strategy.

What is Your Sliding Fee Scale?

I’m using a sliding fee scale. You can choose to enroll by selecting any of the following pricing options: 

• Market Rate +25%
• Market Rate +10%
• Market Rate 
• Market Rate -20%
• Market Rate -50% 

There is no difference in the materials, access, or interaction you will get to the class. Pick whatever pricing plan allows your family to comfortably participate. No one else participating in the class will know how much anyone else paid. 

That’s it! So if you’re reading this because you were worried about which choice you should make to get the class you want, rest assured there’s no difference between them. You’ll get the full class no matter what you pick. 

(Note: You may notice that the prices are not exact percentages because I wanted to keep the total amounts clear and simple.)

How Did You Determine the Sliding Fee Scale Options?

One of the primary ways of determining pricing is to look at what other people doing similar work are charging and use an aggregate of that data to determine the market rate. For a service-related business like mine, that can be tricky as prices can vary widely based on geographic location, expertise of the facilitator, and depth/complexity of the materials. 

Interactive online classes are typically priced by hour of live instruction time. However, for a class that also involves personal feedback on submitted works, that class time is not always representative of the time it takes to run the class. In those cases, the rate per hour of live instruction will usually be higher. 

To determine the “Market Rate” for my classes, I looked at comparable work offered by others doing the kind of work I do: live and guided classes with weekly interaction and significant personalized feedback. 

From there, I simply built in options that would go beyond or operate below that threshold, providing participants with choices they can make based on their own situation. 

Do I Need to Provide Proof of Income? 

No. I will not question or ask for verification of anyone’s pricing plan choice. 

I don’t believe it should be necessary to publicly (or semipublicly) perform any particular status to gain wider access to educational opportunities. I also don’t think that there’s any one-size-fits-all approach to determining need. No one knows better than you do what your situation is. 

What if These Classes are Still Financially Inaccessible?

I realize that this does not completely eliminate the hurdles to accessing classes. The sliding fee scale is one part of a larger plan. Here are some of the additional ways I’m attempting to make my materials more equitably accessible and put the above values into action: 

• I hold one scholarship spot for each of my semester-long core classes and open up applications for it (no income disclosure necessary) when I announce classes for the semester. Participants are chosen from the list via random number generator and alerted early. If materials (books, movies, etc.) are a barrier to participation, I will work with participants to find solutions which may include sending materials directly to them. 
• I commit a portion of my personal profits from the business to re-investing in other organizations doing work related to social justice, racial equity, and educational opportunity. I will periodically provide updates about which organizations I am donating to and welcome input from the community taking my classes on which ones should be included.