Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Private school financial data

As many of you know, I'm testing the waters in establishing a local private school for DS. One of my hurdles in moving into the planning phase is a lack of publicly disclosed financial data from analogs. Most private schools are (understandably) tight-lipped in this regard.

If anyone here has access to financial data--or knows someone who has--I would be grateful if you could shoot me a PM. As my school will be in Canada, it won't be competing with your local private markets. As such, I'm hoping that adminisrators of American and other international schools might be more open to supporting the proliferation of ability-linked education on an ideological basis. I'm happy to sign confidentiality agreements.

I'm focused on K-6 for now, with enrollment targets of 75-100 students total at capacity.

Thanks!

Not sure what you mean by financial data? Are you asking about running costs? What to charge?

Financial statements, ideally.

I'm most curious about capital structure (so, the mix of equity and debt used from start-up) and operating costs of recently founded schools (say, those founded in the last 5-10 years).

I have a good sense of what prices the market will bear locally.

Hmm. Could you get this information from public schools?

I found this booklet about starting a charter school in Canada. It's something, anyway.

I don't have access to this kind of information, but I found a handbook for people trying to start a school. It's US-specific, but might help.

I also found this thread on the Small Business Administration's website. It's also US-specific, but might help.

It looks like charter schools are required to file financial statements; so, "charter school" "financial statement" has a lot of PDF hits. Though I doubt they have the same financial structure; as in, they likely don't have endowments.

Thanks Val! That's really kind of you to dig up this information for me.

My pleasure! I think Zen Scanner had a good idea, too.

Thanks! You're right that it's not a direct analog, but it is a good starting point. I'm toying with the idea of soliciting a few large corporate endowments and making the school 100% need-blind. That's my ultimate goal: to provide what public education SHOULD to HG+ students!

Apparently it's a shallow step up onto my soapbox. Sorry, Zen!

Agreed! That gives me some ammunition. I had blinders on and hadn't thought to look outside conventional public and private schools. Glad I asked you folks.

Gosh, I love this forum!!

You could always ask the Davidsons (or someone who helped them set up their school) for advice.