Private K-12 Schools NAICS 611110

Aug 4, 2025 - Enrollment Share Has Decreased

• The portion of US students in private school students has flattened after decreasing for several decades, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The share of students in private schools was between 11.4% and 11.7% of all US students from 1995 to 2001. The share began decreasing in the early 2000s and in recent years the percentage has flattened out at around 10%. Private schools enroll the largest share of students in the northeast (13%) and the lowest in the west (8.3%)
• President Trump has signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reconciliation bill, which includes a federal voucher program that would provide taxpayer-funded scholarships to pay for tuition at private schools and for home-schooled students. The program makes vouchers available to students in every state, but states must choose whether to participate. The vouchers would be financed through charitable contributions from individuals to entities known as Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO). In return, donors would receive a federal tax credit equal to the amount of their contribution up to a maximum of $1,700. The credit will be available starting in 2027. The SGO would allocate the donated funds as scholarships that students could apply toward various educational expenses such as private school tuition, textbooks, and homeschooling materials. The SGO must fund awards for eligible students only within the state. Students with family income not more than 300% of their area's median gross income would be eligible for the scholarships.

• There are 34 states with private school choice programs in early 2025, according to FutureED. Twelve states have passed laws allowing any student, regardless of income or need, to apply for government funding to subsidize their private, religious, or, in some cases, homeschool education. About 569,000 students in the eight states where such universal programs were active in 2023-24 received public subsidies for private schooling, according to FurureED. Students in states with active programs represented 55% of all US students attending private school with public funding in 2024, at a cost to taxpayers of about $4 billion, according to FutureEd. About 40% of the nation’s 50 million elementary and secondary students will be eligible for public subsidies when all current private school choice programs are active.
• Private K-12 school industry employment has rebounded from pandemic-era lows and remained above pre-pandemic levels in mid-2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private K-12 school revenue is forecast to grow at a 3.86% compounded annual rate from 2025 to 2029, slower than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. Sources of revenue for private schools include tuition, private grants, donations, fundraisers, and income from endowments.