Private K-12 Schools
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 34,500 private K-12 schools in the US provide basic preparatory education for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. Elementary schools typically include grades kindergarten through six. Secondary schools typically include grade seven through twelve. Combined schools offer elementary and secondary education. The vast majority of K-12 private schools are non-profit organizations and about 66% of them are religion-based.
Dependence on Skilled Staff
Private school families expect high quality education from qualified, experienced teachers.
Competition from Alternative Education
In addition to standard public schools (which are free), private schools face competition from a variety of alternative sources, including charter schools, magnet schools, and home schooling.
Industry size & Structure
The average private K-12 school operates out of a single location, employs 10-26 workers and generates over $1 million in annual revenue.
- The private K-12 school industry consists of over 32,400 schools that educate over 5.7 million students and employ about 482,000 teachers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics Private School Universe Survey.
- Although tuition can vary significantly, average tuition is about $7,700 for elementary schools, $13,030 for secondary schools, and $13,640 for combined schools.
- The vast majority of K-12 private schools are nonprofit organizations.
- Most private schools are small institutions. About 21% of private schools have less than 150 students; 25% have between 150 and 299 students; 20% have between 300 and 499 students; and 34% have 500 students or more.
Industry Forecast
Private K-12 Schools Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Nov 12, 2022 - Flu Season Off To A Strong, Early Start
- Influenza is hitting the US unusually early and hard, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Flu season usually lasts from October to May, peaking in December and January. A record number of people were hospitalized in October. “It’s unusual, but we’re coming out of an unusual covid pandemic that has really affected influenza and other respiratory viruses that are circulating,” said Lynnette Brammer, an epidemiologist who heads the CDC’s domestic influenza surveillance team. Activity is high in the south and southeast and is starting to move up the Atlantic coast.
- The number of private school closures is decreasing while the number of openings is increasing, according to the Cato Institute’s Private Schooling Status Tracker. There were 145 total school closures from March 2020 through April 2021, 122 of which cited the coronavirus pandemic as a factor. There were just 36 total closure announcements from May 2021 through July 2022, only 12 of which were attributed directly to the coronavirus pandemic. Just 18 openings were tracked from March 2020 through April 2021. There were 73 openings announced from May 2021 through July 2022. At least 27 of the new schools were expected to open for the 2022–2023 school year.
- The Supreme Court has ruled that Maine violated the US Constitution when it refused to make public funding available for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction. The dispute before the court in Carson v. Makin began as a challenge to the system that Maine uses to provide a free public education to school-aged children. In some of the state’s rural and sparsely populated areas, school districts opt not to run their own secondary schools. Instead, they choose one of two options: sending students to other public or private schools that the district designates or paying tuition at the public or private school that each student selects. But in the latter case, state law allows government funds to be used only at schools that are nonsectarian – that is, schools that do not provide religious instruction.
- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said that Maine pays tuition for some students to attend private schools as “long as the schools are not religious.” “That,” Roberts stressed, “is discrimination against religion.” It does not matter, Roberts continued, that the Maine program was intended to provide students with the equivalent of a free public education, which is secular. The focus of the program, Roberts reasoned, is providing a benefit – tuition to attend a public or private school – rather than providing the equivalent of the education that students would receive in public schools.
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