Well, it could also be priorities, not extra money to splurge. Private school costs way more. Kumon OTOH may be just a couple hundred a month, modest enough eve

Well, it could also be priorities, not extra money to splurge. Private school costs way more. Kumon OTOH may be just a couple hundred a month, modest enough even a working class person can easily afford by bucking up and treating their childs' education as higher priority than having cable or being able to ever eat out, or not having to work a second job on saturday mornings. This is how I was raised and how my family went from sugar cane peasant farmers to school teachers in one generation and from school teachers to software engineers and doctors in just one more. From 6th grade dropouts to high school degrees in one generation, and from there to masters degree in one more. Culture matters. Values matter. There was a time in my young life when my parents slept on the couch so the kids could have a bedroom, so we could live in a tiny place so we could pay less rent and afford to live in a really really good public school district where many kids' parents were ivy league college professors. It paid off. It usually does. Culture. Matters.