- Manhattan Private School Advisors founder stated that there has been an increase in Russian parents calling.
- She stated that she had dealt with Russian parents for many years, but that the political climate has changed.
- Another expert said that bullying Russian children started in schools.
There is a growing need for these services. Chorus of callsTo cancel the student visas of Russian oligarchs’ children in the US The UKHowever, posh schools in New York and the Northeast are in a difficult spot due to an inevitable flood of Russian-born kids seeking a place at such schools.
Amanda Uhry is the founder of Manhattan Private School Advisors Insider heard from a service to help parents place their children in public and private schools.
Uhry said that although she had been working with this population for many years, it was new to her. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been changedA US-based education is the main desire.
“Above all else, these are also parents, and they’re concerned about their child. Before that, it was for clout — now, of course, it’s for safety. It’s for both,”She said. “These people are parents, in addition to being billionaires — they want their kids to be safe, and these kids are very safe in America or England.”
Schools need to be concerned about finances and optics.
Russian parents want their children to attend school in the USA, but it is uncertain if the schools will accept them.
Russian oligarchs were US and European officials target with sanctionsIn response to Russia’s attack against Ukraine, in the hope that it would convince Russian President Vladimir Putin (and his advisors) to end the invasion. A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Congress has even Plan to introduce the Yachts for Ukraine ActThis would enable authorities to seize assets of Russian oligarchs and sell them off to help Ukraine.
Although these sanctions are aimed at multimillion dollar homes and yachts it isn’t beyond reason that there may be other trappings. “ill-begotten gains” — as It was stated by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union Address — could include $60,000-a-year prep schools.
It’s a losing situation for prep schools, who will most likely not want their students to join the geopolitical fray. However, they will take a financial hit from shunning an oligarch. Uhry claims that Russian billionaires often donate to schools where they send their children.
Uhry said that there are many Russian children in American prep schools. “There are plenty of kids in NYC private schools who are the sons and daughters of Russian billionaires.”She declined to name any schools.
Open Doors is a program that tracks international students who study in the United States. Found that international-student enrollment in US higher education was down 15% in the 2020-21 school year from the previous year at about 914,000 students from about 1.07 million in the 2019-20 school year.
There are concerns about Russian children being bullied or discriminated against.
After noticing an unusual silence after the invasion, one education expert expressed concern about Russian student clients in the US.
“It’s so strange these students over the past few weeks have not been answering us at all,”Christopher Rim is the founder of the college and education-consulting company. Command EducationThe company specializes in helping clients find the best college and boasts a 100% acceptance rate. It has some Russian clients who have enrolled in boarding schools in the northeast.
Rim and his staff visited the school to check on students’ progress during the war. There was no response. Rim noticed that one senior from high school, who is accustomed to engaging in social-media activity, deleted their Instagram account.
Rim asked one of his Russian high-school seniors, who was waiting for acceptance letters from universities to ask Rim if she would address the elephant in her room. Rim was afraid that colleges might renege on an offer of acceptance due to the political environment.
“She said she doesn’t want the schools to disregard her application,”Rim stated that some of his students had been living in the US since sixth grade. However, Rim did not provide details about their private lives.
“One of the clients spends the entire summer on a yacht. The parents won’t let their child do any internship or anything,”He spoke of a ninth-grader studying at a boarding school.
Lilly Yu, founder of NYC’s InAmerica EducationInternational students are able to study in private or boarding schools in the US.
“The schools know war is not started by the people — it’s political, and it’s from another level,”She said.
One mother in New York City requested anonymity to protect her children’s privacy and said that her two children attending private school had a group of Russian friends. They were the offspring of superwealthy oligarchs.
“There’s been an Russian-Upper East Side community since years. They all know the Roman Abramovichs“Yes,” she stated, referring to the Russian billionaire, owner of Chelsea Football Club and whose assets were Just frozen by Britain.
She said that friendly relations had not been broken yet.
“Right now, there’s no anti-Russian sentiment for those already integrated into the community,”She said.
Dana Haddad, an education consultant and the founder New York AdmissionsThe firm specializes in helping parents to navigate the admissions process to public and privately-funded schools.
“I’ve had Russian kids here be bullied, based on what’s going on,”She said. “You’re Russian; you’re bad. You can’t come to this party. We don’t want to go out with you.”
In terms of war, revoking visas isn’t much help
Experts agree that revoking student visas would be difficult and unlikely to have any effect on the war effort.
“As a general rule of thumb, the state department has always been very averse to making the sins of the father the sins of the son. And there are understandable reasons for doing that,”Reuel Gerecht is a Senior Fellow at Foundation for the Humanities. Defense of DemocraciesInsider was told by a Washington, DC think tank, called.
Gerecht explained that the president would not be able to execute it because of national security concerns. However, he said it wouldn’t do much. Gerecht also stated that yanking visas is one of those matters. “showy, shiny things”It was “just to punish them and to isolate” Russians.
“Schools might want to protect themselves from possible embarrassment,”He said that schools that accept Russian elites are in a delicate position. “But, then again, only the very tippy top of the Russian totem pole is known. There could be a lot of very, very wealthy Russians let in, and it’s not going to be radioactive.”
It’s ultimately a political calculation for schools. “It’s entirely possible that that attitude might for a certain time influence the decision of admission committees,”He said.
The terror has opened up opportunities for Ukrainian children.
“You might see a few universities go out of their way to find Ukrainian kids and admit them,” Gerecht said. “That would be a nice thing if they did.”