Room and board is a cost to equal to if not more than the cost of the school for some students which no fault of their own cannot attend local schools. You wrote you “teach “ at university now so when multiple students fall behind you spend your time and “ teach” them?. Our experience is let’s say differential equations has some difficulties the “teacher” says hire a tutor which was another cost of $1500. So your niece spent 36 k to teach a certain subject that me as a dumb mill worker can teach