Private schools annually wrestle with complex financial issues that center on the question of tuition. Board members often find themselves asking, “How can we keep our school affordable?” ISM believes this is the wrong question to ask. If one of your school’s strategic goals is to maintain long-term financial viability, the proper question is, “How can we keep our school accessible?”
Affordability implies that a school funds its programs via “guesstimating” what level of tuition its clients can afford to pay. This thinking further implies that a magic dollar amount exists—exceed that level and parents refuse to pay. Accessibility, on the other hand, implies the school:
—funds its programs with tuition designed to cover operating expenses, and
—provides tuition assistance to families who demonstrate need.
This describes the driving force for setting tuition at what it takes to educate students rather than determining parents’ willingness to pay. Ask yourself these questions.
- Have we defined our school’s “competitive advantages”?
- Have we developed creative ways to demonstrate these advantages?
- Have we communicated what makes the education we offer different?
- Have we demonstrated the ways our students benefit from our programs?
- Have we educated our faculty and staff about their roles in relating to our clients?
- Have we tracked our alumni to:
—learn of our programs’ strengths and weaknesses, and
—validate alumni successes? - Have we surveyed our current families to discover their opinions of our school (positive and negative)?
- Have we interviewed families who have withdrawn their children about their concerns? Have we considered those concerns and taken action, if appropriate?
Your school must maintain a proactive program of educating parents about the mission-consistent excellence of the education you deliver. If you are not validating this excellence (or, worse, if your school’s education is inferior to your price), expect tuition to be a continuing concern of your clients.
For more on marketing to parents and keeping your school accessible, see the ISM book Marketing Your School: Recruiting and Re-recruiting Families.
