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Dive Brief:
Over 40 Democratic lawmakers have called on the Trump administration to abandon reported talks about the possibility of selling off a chunk of the federal government’s $1.6 million student loan portfolio to the private market.
In a Sunday letter toU.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent,the federal lawmakers warned transferring student debt ownership to the private sector could strip borrowers of legal protections and violate the law if the loans are sold at a loss to taxpayers.
“The federal government cannot simply eliminate its legal obligations to borrowers,” the members of Congress said. “Federal law requires that the protections guaranteed in the original terms of a borrower’s loan must be honored even if the Department of Education proceeds with a sale.”
Dive Insight:
The letter from Democrats — signed by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden, among others —follows an October report from Politicoabout talks in the Trump administration that centered on a partial sale of the government’s student loans.
According to Politico, senior officials in the U.S. departments of Education and Treasury have recently discussed selling high-performing student loan debt to the private sector.
The administration has also broached the possibility with finance executives, among them potential buyers of the loans, and is considering bringing in consultants or banks to review the portfolio, the news outlet reported.
In addition to calling for the Trump administration to cease any talks, the lawmakers requested detailed information on any potential plan and the names of those who have participated in any discussions. The Education and Treasury departments did not respond to requests for comment by publication time on Tuesday.
The Education Department’s Federal Student Aid office oversees the loan portfolio and contracts out servicing to private entities. Student loan receivables represent one of the largest assets on the nation’s balance sheet.
A 1998 law allows the government to sell student loan assets — so long as it is done at no cost to the government — which could be why no such sale has taken place to date. The Sunday letter said the first Trump administration mulled the possibility but never pursued it, pointing to Wall Street Journal reporting that the agency hired the consultancy McKinsey & Co. at the time to review the portfolio..
The Democratic lawmakers and others have argued the no-cost provision means the government could not sell the loans for less than what it would collect if it kept them on the public balance sheet.
In 2024, FSA estimated the net value of the government’s student loan portfolio at about $1.1 trillion. However, a 2025 analysis from the Project on Predatory Student Lending argues this figure “is almost certainly wrong,” based on data and assumptions that “have proven wildly off-base.”
That figure represents the government’s own valuation of the loan portfolio. In the case of a sale, the relevant figure would be the price a private sector buyer would be willing to pay.
The student lending project said the government has several advantages as a lender over private companies, including unlimited time to collect, the ability to withhold federal payments such as tax refunds to offset loan defaults, and immunity from legal liability for loan servicing failures.All of that means student loans are likely worth more to the government than to the private sector, according to PPSL.
Along with a potential loss to taxpayers, the Democratic lawmakers warned of the possible impact to student borrowers from transferring loan assets.
“By selling parts of the federal student loan portfolio, the Trump Administration may seek to unlawfully strip borrowers of their legally guaranteed protections,” they wrote.
The lawmakers pointed to protections such as income-driven repayment, public service loan forgiveness, disability and death discharges, and debt relief for those determined to have been defrauded by predatory colleges.
“Private lenders typically do not guarantee these kinds of borrower rights,” they wrote. “Profits would likely come at the expense of the borrower via fewer protections and less generous benefits. However, the federal government cannot simply eliminate its legal obligations to borrowers.”
PPSL argued in its analysis that removing provisions for borrowers could make the loan portfolio more valuable to private buyers, but those loan provisions in contracts with the federal government represent property protected by the Fifth Amendment.
“Any law stripping repayment rights or other favorable terms from student loan contracts would potentially trigger an obligation to compensate student loan borrowers for the loss of those terms,” the organization said.
Opinion Piece by Dean Hoke — Small College America and Senior Fellow, The Sagamore Institute
A Personal Concern About the Future of Public Education
It’s impossible to ignore the rising level of criticism directed at our nation’s public schools. On cable news, social media channels, political stages, and in school board meetings, teachers and administrators have become easy targets. Public schools are accused of being ineffective, mismanaged, outdated, or, in some corners, ideologically dangerous. Some commentators openly champion the idea of a fully privatized K–12 system, sidelining the public institutions that have educated the vast majority of Americans for generations.
For those of us who have spent our lives in and around education, this rhetoric feels deeply personal. Public schools aren’t an abstraction. They are the places where many of us began our education, where our children discovered their strengths, where immigrants found belonging, where students with disabilities received support, and where caring adults changed the trajectory of young lives.
Behind every one of those moments stood a teacher.
Amid this turbulence, there is one group of institutions still quietly doing the hard work of preparing teachers: small private nonprofit colleges.
Small Private Colleges: An Overlooked Cornerstone of Teacher Preparation
Despite the noise surrounding public education, small private colleges remain committed to the one resource every school depends on: well-prepared, community-rooted teachers.
They rarely make national headlines. They don’t enroll tens of thousands of students. But they are woven into the civic and human infrastructure of their regions—especially in the Midwest, South, and rural America.
This reality became even clearer during a recent episode of Small College America, in which I interviewed Dr. Michael Scarlett, Professor of Education at Augustana College. His insights provide an insider’s view into the challenges—and the opportunities—facing teacher preparation today. Note to hear the entire interview click here https://smallcollegeamerica.transistor.fm/28
I. The Teacher Shortage: A Structural Crisis
Much has been written about the teacher shortage, but too often the conversation focuses on symptoms rather than causes. Here are the forces shaping the crisis.
1. Young people are turning away from teaching
Data from the ACT show that only 4% of students express interest in becoming teachers—down from 11% in the late 1990s. Bachelor’s degrees in education have fallen nearly 50% since the 1970s. Surveys show that fewer than 1 in 5 adults would recommend teaching as a career.
The message is clear: Teaching is meaningful, but many no longer see it as sustainable.
As Dr. Scarlett told us: “The pipeline simply is not as wide as it needs to be.”
Recent data offers a glimmer of hope: teacher preparation enrollment grew 12% nationally between 2018 and 2022. However, this modest rebound is almost entirely driven by alternative certification programs, which increased enrollment by 20%, while traditional college-based programs grew by only 4%. This disparity underscores a critical concern: the very programs that provide comprehensive, relationship-based preparation—including those at small colleges—are not recovering at the same rate as faster, less intensive alternatives.
2. Burnout and attrition have overtaken new entrants
The pandemic accelerated an already-existing national trend: teachers are leaving faster than new ones are entering.
Reasons include:
Student behavior challenges
Standardized testing pressure
Emotional fatigue
Inequities across districts
Lack of respect
Political and social media hostility
As Scarlett notes, these realities weigh heavily on early-career teachers: “What new teachers face today goes far beyond content knowledge. They face inequities, discipline issues, emotional exhaustion… and they’re expected to do it all.”
3. Alternative certification can’t fill the gap
Alternative routes help—but they cannot replace the traditional college-based pipeline. Many alt-cert teachers receive less pedagogical training and leave sooner.
Scarlett captures the trend: “Teaching has always attracted people later in life… we’ve definitely seen an uptick.”
And while alternative routes have seen growth in recent years—increasing 20% between 2018 and 2021—this expansion has not translated into solving the shortage. As of 2025, approximately 1 in 8 teaching positions nationwide remains either unfilled or filled by teachers not fully certified for their assignments. The shortcut approach cannot substitute for comprehensive preparation.
“The national teacher shortage is real… and retention is just as big a challenge as recruitment.” — Dr. Michael Scarlett
II. The Quiet Backbone: How Small Private Colleges Sustain the Teacher Workforce
Small private colleges graduate fewer teachers than large public institutions, but their impact is disproportionately large—especially in rural and suburban America.
1. They prepare the teachers who stay
About 786 private nonprofit colleges offer undergraduate education degrees—representing roughly 20% of all teacher preparation institutions in the United States. Together, they produce approximately 25,119 graduates per year, an average of 32 per institution.
These numbers may seem modest, but these graduates disproportionately:
Student-teach locally
Earn licensure in their home state
Take jobs within 30 miles of campus
Stay in the profession longer
Public schools desperately need these ‘homegrown’ teachers who understand the communities they serve.
2. Small colleges excel at the one thing teaching requires most: mentoring
Teacher preparation is not transactional. It is relational. And this is where private colleges excel. Scarlett put it plainly: “Close relationships with our students, small classes, a lot of direct supervision… we nurture them throughout the program.” In a profession that relies heavily on modeling and mentorship, this matters enormously.
One of the most striking differences: “Full professors… working with the students in the classrooms and out in field experiences. Other institutions outsource that.”
This is not a trivial distinction. Faculty supervision affects:
Preparedness
Confidence
Classroom management
Retention
Where larger institutions rely on external supervisors, small colleges invest the time and human capital to do it right.
4. They serve the regions hit hardest by shortages
Rural districts have the highest percentage of unfilled teaching positions. Many rural counties rely almost exclusively on a nearby private college to produce elementary teachers, special education teachers, and early childhood educators.
When a small college stops offering education degrees, it often leaves entire counties without a sustainable teacher pipeline.
5. They diversify the educator workforce
Small colleges—especially faith-based, minority-serving, or mission-driven institutions—often enroll first-generation students, students of color, adult career-changers, and bilingual students. These educators disproportionately fill shortage fields.
“What we have here is special… students understand the value of a small college experience.” — Dr. Michael Scarlett
III. Should Small Colleges Keep Offering Education Degrees? The Economic Question
Let’s be direct: Teacher preparation is not a high-margin program.
Costs include:
Intensive field supervision
CAEP or state accreditation
High-touch advising
Small cohort sizes
Education majors also often have lower net tuition revenue compared to business or STEM.
So why should a small college continue offering a program that is expensive and not highly profitable?
Because the alternative is far worse—for the institution and for the region it serves.
1. Cutting teacher-prep weakens a college’s identity and mission
Many private colleges were founded to prepare teachers. Teacher education is often central to institutional mission, community trust, donor expectations, and alumni identity.
Removing education programs sends the message that the college is stepping away from public service.
2. Teacher-prep strengthens community partnerships
Education programs open doors to:
District partnerships
Dual-credit pipelines
Grow Your Own initiatives
Nonprofit and state grants
Alumni involvement
These relationships benefit the entire institution, not just the education department.
3. Education majors support other academic areas
Teacher-prep indirectly strengthens:
Psychology
English
Sciences
Social sciences
Music and arts
When teacher education disappears, these majors often shrink too.
4. The societal mission outweighs the limited revenue
There are moments when institutional decisions must be driven by mission, not margins. Producing teachers is one of them.
5. Addressing concerns about program quality and scale
Some critics question whether small programs can match the resources and diversity of perspectives available at large universities. This is a fair concern—and the answer is that small colleges offer something different, not lesser.
Graduation and licensure pass rates at small private colleges consistently match or exceed those of larger institutions. What smaller programs may lack in scale, they compensate for through personalized mentorship, faculty continuity, and deep community integration. These are not peripheral benefits—they are the very qualities that predict long-term teacher retention.
IV. Why Students Still Choose Teaching—and Why Small Colleges Are Ideal for Them
Despite all the challenges, students who pursue teaching are deeply motivated by purpose.
Scarlett described his own journey: “I wanted to do something important… something that gives back to society.”
Many education majors choose the field because:
A teacher changed their life
They want meaningful work
They value community and service
They thrive in supportive, intimate learning environments
This makes small colleges the natural home for future teachers.
V. What Small Colleges Can Do to Strengthen Their Programs
Below are the strategies that are working across the country.
1. Build Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher pipelines
Districts increasingly partner to:
Co-fund tuition
Support paraeducator-to-teacher pathways
Provide paid residencies
Guarantee interviews for graduates
2. Develop dual-credit and “teacher cadet” high school programs
Scarlett sees this as a major reason for hope: “We’re seeing renewed interest in teaching through high school programs… This gives me hope.”
3. Offer specialized certifications (ESL, special ed, early childhood, STEM)
These areas attract students and meet district needs.
4. Create 4+1 BA/M.Ed pathways
Parents and students love the value.
5. Provide flexible programs for career-changers
The rise of adult learners presents a major opportunity for private colleges. “We prepare our students for the world that exists.” — Dr. Michael Scarlett
VI. Why Small Colleges Must Stay in the Teacher-Prep Business
If small private colleges withdraw from teacher preparation, the consequences will be immediate and dramatic:
Rural and suburban schools will lose their primary source of new teachers.
Teacher diversity will shrink.
More underprepared teachers will enter classrooms.
Districts will become more dependent on high-turnover alternative routes.
Student learning will suffer.
And the profession will lose something even more important: the human-centered preparation that small colleges provide so well.
The teacher shortage will not be solved by legislation alone.
It will not be solved by fast-track certification mills.
It will not be solved by online mega-universities.
It will not be solved by market forces.
It will be solved in the classrooms, hallways, and mentoring relationships of the small colleges that still believe in the promise of teaching.
If we want public schools to remain strong, we must support the institutions that prepare the teachers who keep them alive. Small private colleges aren’t just participants in the teacher pipeline—they are its foundation.
When these colleges thrive, they produce educators who stay, who care, and who transform communities. That’s not just good for education—it’s essential for American democracy.
Dean Hokeis Managing Partner of Edu Alliance Group, a higher education consultancy firm. He formerly served as President/CEO of the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). Dean has worked with higher education institutions worldwide. With decades of experience in higher education leadership, consulting, and institutional strategy, he brings a wealth of knowledge on colleges’ challenges and opportunities. Dean is the Executive Producer and co-host for the podcast series Small College America and a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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Dive Brief:
New York is contributing $49 million in capital grants to 35 of the state’s private nonprofit colleges to help fund upgrades to facilities, build new labs and research spaces, and invest in new technology and equipment.
The state’s Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program — led by a three-person board composed of political appointees — last week awarded grants ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to $5 million, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.
Under the 20-year-old program, eligible colleges must invest $3 of their own money for every $1 of public funds. The next round of applications for projects is set to open in mid-December.
Dive Insight:
Since 2005, HECap has directed $369.8 million in state funding toward over 300 projects at private nonprofit colleges in New York, the governor’s office said.
The program makes the state a financial partner for private colleges, many of which were established well before the 1948 creation of the State University of New York system.
After a more than yearlong application process, the state’s HECap Board approved the latest round of projects at an Oct. 20 meeting. Colleges can use the funds to design, acquire, build, rebuild, renovate or equip buildings. Selected projects are meant to support a college’s academic offerings or student life, as well as to drive economic development in the state.
“These projects stand for our ongoing commitment to keeping New York at the forefront of education and economic opportunity,” Hochul said in a Friday statement.
The current round of combined public and institutional funds represents a $195 million capital investment in independent higher education facilities, according to Hochul’s office.
$1.8 million to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for renovations to a commons area and recreation center.
$5 million to Clarkson University for the first phase of renovations to an engineering and science complex.
$69,800 to Maria College to purchase and install technological equipment.
$1.8 million to Cornell University to build a large classroom space in a library.
$5 million to D’Youville University for renovations to a facility supporting its osteopathic medicine college.
$5 million to Hobart and William Smith Colleges for construction of a new science building and renovation of three adjacent facilities.
$1.8 million to the Rochester Institute of Technology to upgrade its electrical infrastructure.
$1.6 million to Sarah Lawrence College to create an experiential learning center.
New York’s continued public financing of capital projects comes while colleges across the country wrestle with sizable backlogs of deferred maintenance and facilities needs, many left over from the pandemic era as institutions put off those investments.
Last year, analysts with Moody’s Investor Service estimated a “hidden liability” of deferred maintenance needs at colleges potentially amounting to nearly $1 trillion — and just among the roughly 500 institutions Moody’s rated at the time.
Rising costs, high interest rates and financial pressures can make those needs all the more difficult to meet.
“Few have the necessary resources and credit strength to sustain the higher amounts needed to tackle the full extent of their infrastructure needs,” Moody’s analysts said in their report. Colleges that can’t afford upgrades face recruitment risks in enrollment and staff talent as buildings continue to deteriorate.
The backlog of projects is so large that capital spending increases on existing facilities have served only to slow the growth of unmet need, according to a report earlier this year from the building intelligence firm Gordian.
Marketing can make or break a private school’s success. Because even the best programs won’t fill classrooms if families don’t know what your school has to offer.
Private and independent schools that once relied on word-of-mouth or legacy reputation now compete in a vastly different environment. Families have more options, higher expectations, and greater access to information than ever before. The result? Schools must communicate not just what they offer, but why it matters.
The pandemic underscored this shift. While many private schools saw enrollment rise as families sought flexibility and a sense of community, sustaining that growth now depends on something deeper: a clear, consistent brand story and a modern marketing strategy that builds trust through every interaction.
This guide shows you how.
Drawing on 15+ years of HEM’s work with schools and colleges, we’ll clarify what private educational marketing means and why it’s now mission-critical for admissions and retention. Then we’ll move from strategy to execution, how to define your school’s positioning, understand the motivations of parents and students, and turn that insight into high-performing digital and word-of-mouth campaigns.
What you’ll learn:
How to differentiate your school with a compelling value proposition and proof points
The channels that actively move inquiries (website/SEO, social, email, paid)
Content and community tactics that convert interest into visits and applications
A step-by-step plan to build (or refresh) a coherent marketing strategy
We’ll weave in real examples, both client work and standout schools, to keep it practical and immediately usable.
Struggling with enrollment?
Our expert digital marketing services can help you attract and enroll more students!
What Is Marketing in Education?
Put simply, marketing in education is about connection. It’s understanding what families value and communicating how your school meets those needs with clarity and authenticity. It’s a strategic process of shaping perception, building relationships, and inspiring trust in your institution’s promise.
In practice, this means identifying what makes your school distinct, whether it’s academic excellence, small class sizes, or a values-driven community, and ensuring those strengths are reflected across every touchpoint: your website, social media, campus events, and everyday communication.
But here’s the key difference from corporate marketing: in education, the “product” is transformative. You’re not selling a service; you’re demonstrating outcomes like student growth, alumni success, and lifelong belonging.
That’s why leading independent schools now view marketing as a strategic discipline, not an afterthought. Many have dedicated teams managing branding, digital presence, and admissions communications, because in today’s landscape, great education needs great storytelling to thrive.
What Is the Role of Marketing in Schools?
Essentially, marketing in schools is about alignment; connecting what a school offers with what families seek. A strong marketing function doesn’t just fill seats; it sustains a mission. It ensures enrollment remains healthy, relationships stay strong, and the school continues to thrive long term. Here are a few key roles that marketing plays in a private or independent school:
Driving Enrollment and Retention: Effective private education marketing attracts new families and nurtures existing ones. From open house campaigns to parent newsletters that celebrate student success, it reassures families they’ve made the right choice, turning satisfaction into advocacy.
Building Brand and Reputation: Every message, photo, and interaction shapes how a school is perceived. Strong marketing clarifies the school’s value and ensures consistency across channels, building recognition and trust.
Fostering Community Engagement: Marketing also connects the internal community (students, parents, and alumni), transforming them into ambassadors whose stories amplify the school’s credibility and reach.
In essence, marketing is the strategic engine that sustains both mission and momentum.
How to Market Private Schools: Key Strategies
Marketing independent schools successfully starts with one word: focus. The most effective strategies combine digital innovation with human connection, reflecting both the school’s personality and the priorities of modern families. In this section, we explore key strategies and best practices for private education marketing. These will answer the big question: “How do we market our private or independent school to boost enrollment and stand out?”
1. Understand Your Target Audience and Their Needs
Everything begins with insight. Parents and guardians are the primary decision-makers for K–12 education, so understanding what they value, whether it’s academic rigor, faith-based values, or community belonging, is essential. Avoid broad messaging that speaks to “everyone.” Instead, analyze your current families: Where do they live? What motivated their choice? What concerns drive their decision-making?
Many schools formalize this through personas, fictional yet data-driven profiles like “Concerned Parent Carol,” representing key audience segments. Surveys, interviews, and CRM data can help refine these personas to reveal motivations and needs.
Example: Newcastle University (UK). The university’s marketing team uses data and research to deeply understand prospective students. Newcastle’s internal content guide emphasizes identifying audience needs through methods like analytics, social media listening, surveys, and focus groups. This research informs content planning, ensuring communications solve audience problems and use the right tone and channels.
Once you know your audience, tailor your outreach accordingly. Working parents may prefer evening emails; international families may value multilingual content highlighting boarding life. Each message should reflect your school’s unique strengths and speak directly to what families care about most.
In short, marketing begins with knowing your families deeply and crafting messages that make them feel seen, understood, and inspired to choose your school.
2. Define and Promote Your School’s Unique Value Proposition
Once you know your audience, the next step is to define what truly makes your school stand out. In a competitive education landscape, clarity is power, and your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is what helps families instantly understand why your school is the right choice.
Start by asking: “What do we offer that others don’t?” Your differentiators might be tangible (like an IB-accredited curriculum, advanced STEM facilities, or bilingual instruction) or emotional (a nurturing environment, strong moral foundation, or inclusive community). The key is to highlight the qualities that align with your audience’s values and can’t easily be replicated by competitors.
Look at what nearby schools emphasize, then find the white space. Finally, weave your UVP consistently through your website, tagline, visuals, and social media tone. A clear, authentic value proposition creates confidence and shows families not just what you offer, but why it matters.
Example: Minerva University (USA). Minerva differentiates itself with a global immersion undergraduate program and an active learning model. The university clearly promotes this UVP: students live and study in seven cities on four continents over four years, rather than staying on one campus. Minerva’s website emphasizes that this global rotation and its innovative, seminar-based curriculum prepare students to solve complex global challenges. Each year in a new international city is not a travel experience but an integral part of academics, which Minerva markets as a unique offering in higher education.
3. Build a Robust Online Presence (Website, SEO, and Content)
Your school’s online presence is its digital front door, often the first impression prospective families have. A strong online foundation combines a polished website, smart SEO, and valuable content that informs, inspires, and converts.
Website Design & User Experience (UX) Your website should feel like a guided tour: beautiful, intuitive, and informative. Parents should quickly find essentials like admissions details, tuition, programs, and contact info. Use clean navigation, mobile-first design, and fast loading speeds to keep users engaged. High-quality visuals, such as campus photos, testimonial videos, or 360° virtual tours, bring your school to life. Consistent colors, logos, and tone across every page reinforce trust and ensure brand cohesion.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Even the best website can’t help if no one finds it. Use relevant keywords (e.g., “private school in Toronto,” “Catholic high school with IB program”) naturally in titles, headings, and meta descriptions. Create dedicated pages for programs and locations, optimize image alt text, and claim your Google Business profile to strengthen local SEO visibility.
Content Marketing Keep your site dynamic through regular updates via blog posts, student stories, and event recaps. Highlighting achievements and thought-leadership topics (like “How to Choose the Right Private School”) builds credibility and draws organic traffic.
Example: Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT (USA): MIT’s Admissions Office hosts a famous student-written Admissions Blog that has become a pillar of its online presence. For over a decade, current MIT students have blogged candidly about campus life and academics, amassing thousands of posts read by prospective students worldwide. This blog strategy – focusing on transparency and real student voices – has paid off: the content generated millions of views, a robust engagement, and is often cited by applicants as influential in their college choice. MIT even curates a “Best of the Blogs” booklet and frequently analyzes blog traffic and feedback, using those insights to continually refine content and keep its website highly relevant to what prospective students want to know.
A well-designed, search-optimized, content-rich website isn’t just marketing; it’s proof of excellence.
4. Leverage Social Media and Digital Engagement
Social media is no longer optional. For private schools, it’s often the first place parents and students experience your community. Done right, it doesn’t just showcase your school; it builds lasting emotional connections.
Choose the Right Platforms Focus on where your audience spends time. For most schools, Facebook and Instagram are the anchors.
Facebook for community updates, parent groups, and event highlights.
Instagram for vibrant visuals and stories from daily campus life.
Schools serving older students or alumni can also explore TikTok, YouTube, or LinkedIn to reach new audiences.
Be Consistent and Purposeful Post regularly, at least a few times weekly, and plan around the school calendar. Use photos, short videos, or student/teacher takeovers to bring authenticity. Feature achievements, classroom moments, and cultural highlights to help families visualize their child’s experience.
Engage and Respond Social media is a dialogue, not a monologue. Reply promptly to comments, use polls or Q&As, and encourage user-generated content. Paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram can further boost awareness, driving families to your website or open house events.
Example: New York University (USA). NYU’s admissions team expanded its digital reach by launching an official TikTok account and running student-led Instagram takeovers to showcase campus life. Current NYU students (Admissions Ambassadors) frequently create Instagram Stories and TikToks about dorm life, classes, and NYC activities, allowing prospects to see authentic student experiences. NYU actively encourages prospective students to engage – liking, commenting, or DMing questions – and monitors that feedback. This social strategy not only entertains (e.g., seniors doing TikTok dances) but also provides valuable peer-to-peer insights about “fit,” helping applicants feel more connected to the university culture.
A strong social presence humanizes your brand and turns followers into advocates.
5. Utilize Both Digital and Traditional Advertising Wisely
A balanced mix of digital and traditional advertising ensures your school reaches families online and in the local community. Each channel serves a distinct purpose.
Digital Advertising: Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook/Instagram Ads allow precise targeting by location, interests, and demographics. Search ads capture families actively looking for private schools (“private school near me”), while display and remarketing ads keep your brand visible even after visitors leave your site. For best results, pair strong ad copy with well-optimized landing pages. Email marketing is also a cost-effective channel for nurturing inquiries through newsletters and event updates.
Traditional Advertising: Local print ads, outdoor banners, and community events remain powerful for visibility. Direct mail campaigns and education fairs can connect you with parents in person, adding a personal touch that digital may lack. Track every campaign’s ROI and adjust accordingly.
Example: In 2025, Troy University rolled out “All Ways Real. Always TROY,” a new brand campaign across a mix of traditional and digital channels. The integrated campaign includes a dynamic video commercial, print ads in publications, targeted online ads, extensive social media content, billboards in key markets, and even on-campus signage reinforcing the message. By deploying a cohesive theme on multiple platforms, Troy ensures its story of “authentic, career-focused” education reaches people wherever they are – whether scrolling online or driving past a billboard. (The campaign was informed by research and campus stakeholder input, and its multi-channel approach builds broad awareness while maintaining consistent branding.)
6. Emphasize Personal Connections: Tours, Open Houses, and Word-of-Mouth
Even in the digital age, enrollment decisions are deeply personal. Families may start online, but the final decision often comes down to how a school feels, its people, warmth, and community spirit. That’s why in-person experiences and authentic connections remain at the heart of private school marketing.
Tours and Open Houses: These events are your strongest conversion tools. Host open houses that showcase your facilities, programs, and culture. Include presentations, guided tours, and student or parent ambassadors to share authentic perspectives. Personal tours should be tailored to family interests, show relevant classrooms, introduce teachers, and follow up promptly afterward.
Word-of-Mouth and Community Engagement: Encourage satisfied parents, alumni, and students to share their experiences online and offline. Create ambassador programs or host informal meet-ups. Families trust real stories from peers more than polished ads, its important to nurture that organic advocacy.
Example:St. Benedict’s Episcopal School (USA). This private school in Georgia leverages parent word-of-mouth through an organized Parent Ambassador Program. Enthusiastic current parents serve as school ambassadors – they attend open houses (in person or virtual) to welcome and mentor new families, display yard signs in their neighborhoods, bumper stickers on cars, and share school posts on their personal social media to spread the word. To further encourage referrals, St. Benedict’s even offers a Family Referral Program: current families receive a tuition discount (10–15% off one child’s tuition) if they refer a new family who enrolls. These personal recommendations and community events create a warm, trust-based marketing channel that no paid advertisement can replace.
7. Monitor, Measure, and Refine Your Marketing Efforts
Marketing is an evolving process of observation, analysis, and improvement. The best-performing private schools treat marketing as a cycle: plan, execute, measure, and refine.
Track and Analyze Performance: Use tools like Google Analytics, Meta Ads Manager, or your CRM to monitor how families engage with your campaigns and website. Track metrics such as page visits, inquiries, conversion rates, and the most effective traffic sources. For example, if your admissions page gets plenty of views but few form completions, it may need stronger calls to action or a simpler layout.
Define and Review KPIs: Set measurable goals, like inquiry volume, open house attendance, or enrollment yield, and review them monthly or quarterly. Data-driven insights allow you to invest more in what works and cut what doesn’t.
Iterate and Adapt: Marketing trends shift quickly. Regularly test your messaging, visuals, and targeting strategies. Even small A/B tests on ads or email subject lines can lead to significant improvements over time.
Example:Drexel University (USA). Drexel invests heavily in data analytics to continually refine its marketing and enrollment strategies. The university established an Enrollment Analytics team dedicated to measuring what’s working and advising adjustments. This team analyzes prospect and applicant data, builds dashboards and predictive models, and shares actionable insights with admissions and marketing units. By using data visualization and machine-learning models (for example, predicting which inquiries are most likely to apply), Drexel’s marketers can focus resources on high-yield activities and tweak messaging or outreach frequency based on evidence. The goal is to enable fully data-driven decisions – Drexel explicitly ties this analytic approach to improving efficiency and effectiveness in hitting enrollment goals.
How to Create a Marketing Strategy for a School (Step-by-Step)
We’ve explored what effective school marketing entails. Now let’s unpack how to build a plan that actually works.
How to create a marketing strategy for a school? To create a marketing strategy for a school, set clear goals, analyze your audience and competitors, define your unique value proposition, choose effective marketing channels, implement campaigns consistently, measure performance using data and feedback, and refine tactics regularly for continuous improvement and enrollment growth.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or optimizing an existing strategy, a clear, step-by-step framework helps you move from ideas to measurable impact.
Step 1: Determine Your Goals
Start by defining what success looks like for your school. Without clear goals, marketing becomes guesswork. Use the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, to make goals actionable.
For instance:
Increase Grade 9 applications by 15% for the next school year
Boost awareness in new neighborhoods to attract 10 students from that area
Enhance perception of our arts program through digital storytelling campaigns
Each goal should have a metric. If you aim to “increase inquiries,” specify how many, by when, and through which channels. Concrete targets create accountability and make it possible to assess ROI later.
Step 2: Conduct a Situation Analysis
Before planning tactics, understand your current position. Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to evaluate both internal and external factors.
Internal Assessment:
What is your brand reputation in the community?
Are your social media channels active and engaging?
Does your website effectively communicate your strengths?
External Assessment:
Is the local school-age population growing or declining?
Who are your competitors, and what are they emphasizing?
What economic, demographic, or policy shifts could impact enrollment?
For example, a strength could be high university placement rates; a weakness might be outdated branding; an opportunity could be a new housing development nearby; a threat might be a competing school opening next year.
Review past marketing data, too. Which campaigns generated the most inquiries? Did your open house attendance meet expectations? Insights from past efforts shape a more effective plan moving forward.
Step 3: Define Your Value Proposition and Key Messages
Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is the heart of your marketing strategy. It defines what makes your school distinct and why families should choose you.
Once identified, craft three to five key supporting messages. Example:
UVP: “We provide a holistic education that develops intellect and character.”
Key Messages:
Dual-curriculum integrating academics and character education.
Small class sizes for individualized attention.
Safe, inclusive community environment.
Commitment to innovation and creativity.
Decades-long legacy of academic excellence.
These pillars should guide every piece of communication, from your homepage copy to your social media captions. Make sure they align with your audience’s priorities. Involving key stakeholders, teachers, admissions staff, parents, and alumni ensures authenticity and internal alignment.
Step 4: Select Your Marketing Channels and Tactics
With messaging established, identify how you’ll deliver it. The best school marketing strategies blend digital and traditional approaches, tailored to your budget and bandwidth.
Digital Channels:
Revamp and optimize your website for clarity, SEO, and mobile responsiveness.
Create a content calendar for blogs, newsletters, and video storytelling.
Maintain consistent posting on key social platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, YouTube).
Run targeted Google Ads and Facebook campaigns for open house registrations.
Traditional Channels:
Host community events, sponsor local activities, or participate in school expos.
Distribute branded print materials like brochures and banners.
Leverage alumni and parent networks for referral-based outreach.
Outline timelines and assign responsibilities. For instance, if the admissions team handles social posts while a vendor manages SEO, document it clearly. Prioritize what’s realistic, for example, executing three channels effectively beats juggling six poorly.
Tip: Always make sure your digital foundation (especially your website) is strong before investing in high-cost advertising. A great ad can’t compensate for a poor landing page.
Step 5: Launch and Implement the Campaign
This is where planning meets execution. Roll out initiatives systematically and track everything from day one.
Develop a month-by-month marketing calendar tied to admissions milestones. For example:
August: Update website content, design new visuals, and optimize SEO.
September: Launch “Back-to-School” awareness campaign and host the first open house.
October–November: Run paid social ads and distribute direct mailers.
January: Promote application deadlines through retargeting and email follow-ups.
To maintain consistency, use automation tools (like HubSpot or Hootsuite) to schedule posts, emails, and reminders. However, ensure automation still feels human; personalized responses matter.
Coordinate closely with admissions and faculty teams so inquiries are promptly followed up on. A well-executed campaign can fail if responses are delayed. Always be ready to scale operationally when interest spikes.
Step 6: Evaluate and Refine
Once campaigns have run for a few months or after a full admissions cycle, analyze outcomes against your original goals.
Ask:
Did applications or inquiries increase as projected?
Which channels drove the most qualified leads?
Were conversion rates consistent across the funnel (inquiry → visit → enrollment)?
Review quantitative data (Google Analytics, CRM reports, ad dashboards) and qualitative feedback (from parent surveys, open house attendees, or declined applicants).
Then refine your strategy accordingly. Maybe your direct mail campaign underperformed while Instagram ads overdelivered. Next year, you’ll reallocate the budget. Or perhaps your messaging around “academic rigor” resonated more than “extracurricular excellence,” lean into what’s connecting emotionally.
Treat underperforming tactics not as failures but as opportunities to learn and adapt. The most successful schools are agile; they evolve messaging, visuals, and targeting as they collect new insights.
Step 7: Maintain and Innovate (Ongoing)
Marketing is cyclical. Each year, repeat the process of reassessing goals, refreshing creative assets, and incorporating new ideas.
Innovation keeps your brand vibrant. Test emerging platforms (like TikTok or Threads), experiment with storytelling formats (student podcasts, short documentaries), or integrate automation and AI for efficiency. Ensure each new initiative aligns with your mission and audience preferences.
Document everything in a concise marketing strategy brief: a one-page summary outlining:
Goals and KPIs
Target audience profiles
Key messages
Marketing channels and timeline
Budget and resource plan
Sharing this internally keeps admissions, communications, and leadership aligned.
Creating a marketing strategy for your school is about clarity, structure, and alignment. By defining goals, analyzing your position, articulating your value, choosing the right channels, and refining based on results, your school can build a sustainable and measurable marketing system.
At HEM, we’ve experienced how following this structured approach outperforms those relying on ad-hoc efforts. The difference? A strategy built on data, storytelling, and intentionality, turning marketing from a task into a powerful growth engine for your institution.
Wrapping Up
Marketing a private or independent school is both an art and a science. It blends the emotional connection of storytelling with the precision of data-driven strategy. The most successful schools understand their audiences deeply, communicate their value clearly, and use modern tools to bring those stories to life.
In today’s evolving landscape of private education marketing, technology has created new opportunities, from SEO and social media to virtual tours and AI chatbots, yet the heart of school marketing remains the same: authentic human connection. A well-placed digital ad may spark interest, but it’s the warmth of a personal tour or a parent’s heartfelt testimonial that inspires trust and enrollment.
If you’re just beginning, focus on the fundamentals: know your audience, tell your school’s story authentically, and ensure every touchpoint, online and offline, reflects your values. With consistent, strategic communication, your school can build visibility, strengthen relationships, and attract the right families.
And remember, you don’t have to do it alone. Partnering with education marketing experts like Higher Education Marketing can help transform your strategy into measurable enrollment success.
Do you need help developing a results-driven private education marketing plan for your institution?
Struggling with enrollment?
Our expert digital marketing services can help you attract and enroll more students!
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What is the role of marketing in schools?
Answer: Essentially, marketing in schools is about alignment; connecting what a school offers with what families seek. A strong marketing function doesn’t just fill seats; it sustains a mission. It ensures enrollment remains healthy, relationships stay strong, and the school continues to thrive long term.
Question: How to create a marketing strategy for a school?
Answer: To create a marketing strategy for a school, set clear goals, analyze your audience and competitors, define your unique value proposition, choose effective marketing channels, implement campaigns consistently, measure performance using data and feedback, and refine tactics regularly for continuous improvement and enrollment growth.
Question: What is marketing in education?
Answer: Put simply, marketing in education is about connection. It’s understanding what families value and communicating how your school meets those needs with clarity and authenticity. It’s a strategic process of shaping perception, building relationships, and inspiring trust in your institution’s promise.
At least a quarter of students across a broad range of graduate and professional programs could need private loans, which tend to come with higher interest rates, in order to pay for their education once new caps on federal loans take effect next summer, multiple studies show. For some, the loans could become so costly as to make earning a master’s or doctoral degree unattainable.
Currently, this group can borrow federal loans up to the total cost of attendance thanks to a program known as Grad PLUS. But starting July 1, students will max out at either $20,500 or $50,000 per year depending on whether they enroll in a graduate or professional program, respectively. And those in graduate programs will only be able to take out $100,000 over all, while students in professional programs will be limited to $200,000. Congress made the changes as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed earlier this summer.
The caps mean that the median borrower in four of the nine largest professional programs likely will need to find other financing to pay tuition bills, according to a recent analysis from the Postsecondary Education and Economics Research Center at American University. Borrowers in the 75th percentile exceed the cap in six of the nine fields.
And it’s not just the most costly doctoral programs such as medicine and dentistry in which students will face such a challenge, PEER notes. Out of the 30 master’s degree programs with the highest loan volume, 50 percent of students exceed the cap in nearly half of them.
Many of these students could struggle to find a private lender to make up the difference, potentially forcing them to drop out or not enroll in the first place, policy experts at PEER and other research groups say. And even if a student finds a lender, taking out a private loan could lead to steep, sometimes predatory, interest rates that take decades to pay off. (Research shows that low-income individuals particularly struggle to secure private financing because of a range of factors such as low credit scores, a lack of assets or an inconsistent flow of income.)
Before this new law, “students could have just filled out their FAFSA, applied for loans through the Department of Education and been able to borrow up to the full cost of attendance of their program,” said Jordan Matsudaira, director of the PEER Center and a former deputy under secretary at the Department of Education.
But now, for upward of a quarter of graduate students, it likely won’t be that simple.
“I think that will come as a surprise to a lot of people,” he said.
Can Private Lenders Fill the Gap?
Other researchers at Urban Institute and Jobs for the Future have also crunched the numbers on the loan caps and reached similar findings.
Jobs for the Future estimated in a report released last month that if this loan cap had been in place for the 2019–20 graduating class, roughly 38 percent of graduate borrowers would have needed to take out more loans beyond the cap. And thanks to the limit, the federal government would have issued $9.7 billion less in loans—a decrease of about 28 percent, according to the report.
Urban also used data from 2019–20 but broke it down by program, finding that dentistry would have the largest share of students exceeding the cap. About 56 percent would have exceeded the annual limit, and 58 percent blew through the aggregate cap. Other programs with a high share of students that could be pushed into the private market include medicine, at 41 percent, a master’s in public health, at 29 percent, and a master’s in fine arts, at 26 percent.
Policy experts on both sides of the political aisle tend to agree that the student debt crisis needs to be addressed. But unlike conservative lawmakers and analysts who believe these caps are necessary in order to lessen student debt and encourage colleges to lower costs, some researchers worry the limits are too aggressive and don’t account for nuances like a program’s return on investment.
“The kind of pain involved here is a little bit bigger than it needed to be to rein in the most egregious abuses in the system,” Matsudaira said. “The better approach over all would have been to adopt an approach where different fields of study had different limits that were scaled with borrowers’ ability to repay.”
Some questions about how the loan limits will work and which programs they’ll apply to will be answered later this month when the Education Department starts to work through the rule-making process to carry out the law’s provisions. Representatives from nursing, aviation and social work have already started to speak out about why their programs should be considered professional degrees and therefore be eligible for the higher cap.
“In today’s economy, the majority of graduate education is practical and workforce-aligned, preparing students for jobs in health care, education, counseling, technology and much more,” Stephanie Giesecke, a representative of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said at a public hearing in August. “The definition that is too narrow risks excluding programs that are vitally important to communities and employers nationwide.”
Like Matsudaira, Ethan Pollack, a senior director of policy at JFF, said that while he sympathizes with the Republican diagnosis that debt is too high, he probably would have gone about addressing it a different way. But rather than suggesting changes to the cap itself, JFF’s report looked at the financial impact on borrowers and suggested ways that institutions, the government and private lenders can adjust in response.
One key recommendation was the use of outcomes-based financing for private loans, which would base payments in part on borrowers’ earnings after graduating. Pollack said that this approach could help students who lack strong credit histories or cosigners still pursue well-paying degrees like a juris doctorate.
But current regulations, like requiring a bank to disclose a flat annual percentage rate, or APR, when offering a loan, make it difficult for some private vendors to explore new models like outcomes-based financing, he explained. If the government were to build on the recent legislation by amending current regulations and introducing new guardrails for private lenders, Pollack added, the OBF model could make nonfederal loans more affordable for borrowers of all backgrounds.
“The federal government, in some sense, is stepping on the gas and the brake at the same time,” he said. “They’re saying that they want the private market to be stepping up, but at the same time, the federal government is one of the obstacles to the private market being able to step up in the way that we would all like them to, which is to be offering financing with much more student-friendly terms.”
Matsudaira, on the other hand, was more skeptical.
“The big question is whether the private sector is really going to be able to come in and fill a hole that big,” he said. “And even if they do, how long does it take for them to spin up to be able to do those kinds of things?”
Sitting on the Kentucky border, the Christian Academy of Indiana draws students from 56 different ZIP codes in southern Indiana. Some come from as far as 30 miles away and live in counties without private schools.
Families in those distant communities make the drive every day — sometimes carpooling — because they’re drawn to the school’s environment and extracurriculars, and especially its Christian teaching, said Lorrie Baechtel, director of admissions for the school, which is part of a three-school network in Indiana and Kentucky.
“There are lots of good public school options in Indiana. Families come to our Indiana campus more for that mission,” Baechtel said.
The school’s enrollment has boomed in the last four years, driven in part by the expansion of the Choice Scholarship, Indiana’s signature voucher program. That’s made tuition more affordable, Baechtel said. More than 1,200 students attended in 2024-2025, up from around 700 in 2021-22.
That reflects a statewide trend: Voucher use has surged in recent years as Indiana lawmakers loosened eligibility requirements. In 2026, the program will open to all families, regardless of income.
But the Christian Academy’s ability to attract students from far away tells another story too. Even as vouchers have become more accessible, Indiana’s rural students aren’t using them at the same rate as their urban and suburban peers. That’s in part because one-third of counties don’t have a private school that accepts vouchers within their borders, and distance is a factor in parents’ decisions on school choice.
The result is that students who live closer to an urban center — which typically have one or more voucher-accepting private schools — may use vouchers at rates up to 30 percentage points higher than those for students who live in a neighboring district.
“If there are no schools there for you to attend it’s unlikely it’s going to be all that useful for you,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.
More than that, public education advocates say splitting state school funding with vouchers leaves less for the rural public schools these students do attend.
“We’re making the policy choice to fund a lot more choices than we used to,” said Chris Lagoni, executive director of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association, which represents public schools. “We’re inviting more and more folks to Sunday dinner. It’s a little bit of a bigger meal, but a lot more guests.”
But the state’s Republican lawmakers have dismissed the fears of a hit to public rural schools as a result of vouchers, saying that rural voters support choice and parents want educational options — whether that’s private, charter, or traditional public schools.
Meanwhile, school choice advocates say the latest expansion of the Choice Scholarship, along with a growing preference for smaller learning environments and the rise of voucher-accepting online schools, could mean more private school access for rural areas in the near future.
“I think we’re best when we have a robust ecosystem of private and public options,” said Eric Oglesbee of the Drexel Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropy organization that funds new private schools in Indiana and throughout the U.S.
Location matters in accessing a private school
Across the state, around 76,000 students received vouchers for the 2024-25 school year — an increase of about 6,000 students from the year before. The program cost the state $497 million last year, and the average voucher recipient came from a household with just over $100,000 in income.
But around one-third of Indiana counties don’t have voucher-accepting private schools within their borders, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state data, which also shows that voucher use is lower in rural areas than urban ones.
Voucher use can shift dramatically even between nearby areas. For example, around 16% of students who reside in the Madison school district in southern Indiana use vouchers, but that rate drops to as low as 1% in nearby districts that are more rural. Similar trends hold in other areas of the state, like Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, and South Bend.
Location matters because driving distance has been shown to be a factor in how parents choose a school.
In a 2024 survey of parent preferences by EdChoice, an Indianapolis-based group that supports vouchers, around half of parents said they would drive a max of 15 minutes for their children “to attend a better school.” Just over a quarter said they would drive no more than 20 minutes, and the final quarter said 30 minutes would be their max.
Concerns about this issue have persisted in the state for years. Alli Aldis of the advocacy group EdChoice pointed to a 2018 report from her organization that called areas of rural Indiana as “schooling deserts.” It estimated that in the 2017-18 school year, around 3% of Indiana students, many in rural counties, lived more than 30 minutes from a charter, magnet, or voucher-accepting private school.
Starting a new school anywhere, but particularly in a rural area, comes with challenges like finding a building, said Oglesbee of the Drexel Fund.
A 2023 Drexel Fund report found that facilities in the state are “inadequate to meet the needs of new entrants to the market.” Though the report notes that real estate is both affordable and available, there are no public sources of facilities funding, and surplus facilities are not available to private schools.
But new laws in Indiana have the potential to change that. House Enrolled Act 1515 established voluntary school facility pilot programs open to both public and private schools to “allow for additional flexibility and creativity in terms of what is considered a school facility,” like colocating with schools, government entities, and community organizations.
Oglesbee said the organization is fielding an explosion of interest from potential new private schools in Indiana, possibly as a latent result of the 2023 expansion to voucher eligibility, which made the program nearly universal.
School succeeds ‘if the community asks for it’
Other challenges to opening a private school include hiring staff and recruiting students, which can be a particular issue in rural areas with both fewer children and licensed teachers, advocates said.
Opening a school also requires a team of people with both education and business experience, Oglesbee said. And they’re more likely to succeed if they have roots in the community they hope to serve.
“I see less of the ‘if you build it, they will come’ idea,” Oglesbee said. “A school is successful if the community asks for it.”
At a recent conservative policy conference, Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston said rural Indiana communities were “super excited” for school choice, and noted that no Republican lawmaker had been beaten in a primary for supporting the policy.
But Indiana voters haven’t voted on school vouchers, and don’t have a legal avenue to overturn the policy, said Chris Lubienski of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. Last year, voters in Kentucky and Colorado rejected ballot measures in favor of school choice, while Nebraska voters partially repealed a state-funded scholarship program.
“There’s resistance: ‘Why do I want to have my taxes fund a program I can’t use?’” Lubienski said.
In rural areas, support for school choice may actually mean support for transfers between public school districts, said Lagoni.
Ultimately, the Rural Schools Association believes any school receiving state dollars should be subject to the same expectations of transparency and accountability, Lagoni said.
Asked about concerns that rural students often have difficulty using vouchers, Huston said he expects voucher usage to continue to grow once the program becomes universal in 2026-27.
“We want to make sure our policies align with what works best for families,” Huston said.
Vouchers add to financial stress for rural schools
With more school options in Indiana, downward pressure on local tax revenue, and declining population, rural public schools feel pressure to compete. Sometimes that means closing and consolidating schools.
Vigo County schools recently announced plans to close two rural elementary schools as part of a plan to renovate facilities and offer more programming. The school corporation’s enrollment has declined slightly, due in part to an overall decline in the county’s total population, said spokesperson Katie Shane.
More students who reside in the district are using vouchers, although they’re not the biggest reason for the district’s falling enrollment. While 429 students used vouchers to attend private schools last school year, an increase from 252 the year before, around 870 Vigo students transferred to another public school district in the fall of the 2024-25 school year. That reflects a statewide trend.
Without their nearest public elementary schools, students may have to travel by bus for half an hour or more to the nearest school, according to community members who have started a petition to save one of the two schools marked for closure, Hoosier Prairie Elementary School.
“Hoosier Prairie isn’t just about going to school,” said Shyann Koziatek, an educational assistant at the school who also signed the petition to stop its closure. “Kids love to learn and love the routine we have.”
Rural schools also often function as large area employers and drivers of the economy.
“Schools are often the center and identity of the community, how people view who they are,” Lubienski said. “You go and cheer on your football team, it’s where you put on your school play.”
But private schools can serve the same role, choice advocates say.
“If people have stronger educational options, more choices, that only strengthens the community,” said Aldis of EdChoice.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.
July was marked by steep cuts at some of the nation’s wealthiest institutions while fewer small, cash-strapped colleges made significant workforce reductions.
While some of the nation’s wealthiest universities—institutions with multibillion-dollar endowments—laid off hundreds of employees last month due to federal research funding issues, an uncertain political landscape and rising costs, those cuts were an anomaly. Colleges outside the top financial stratosphere, contending with issues such as declining enrollment, shrinking state support and other challenges, didn’t cut as deep compared to the megawealthy.
Inside Higher Ed recently covered how the Trump administration is driving cuts at wealthy institutions. Now here’s a look at other layoffs and program cuts announced in July as both large, well-resourced institutions and smaller colleges with less capital contend with challenging headwinds for the sector.
Temple University
Grappling with a budget deficit that was projected as high as $60 million, Temple laid off 50 employees and eliminated more than 100 vacancies in July, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The 50 layoffs equal less than 1 percent of Temple’s total workforce, according to the university.
Altogether Temple eliminated “190 positions across the university, with the vast majority of these coming through attrition, retirement or elimination of vacant positions,” President John Fry wrote in a message to campus last month. Fry added that those reductions narrowed the projected budget gap from $60 million to $27 million, cutting Temple’s structural deficit by more than half.
Michigan State University
The wealthiest institution represented here, with an endowment valued at more than $4.4 billion, the public university in Lansing cut nearly 100 jobs last month, The Detroit Free Press reported.
Officials announced 94 employees in MSU’s extension division were being laid off due to a loss of federal grant funding. The cuts come as a result of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–Education program being discontinued this fall, which provided a $10 million grant. Layoffs will affect employees across the state.
Additional jobs cuts also loom at Michigan State, where officials recently announced cost-cutting plans, citing the need to trim its budget by about 9 percent over the course of the next two years.
University of Florida
One of the wealthiest institutions on this list with an endowment of more than $2 billion, UF eliminated 75 jobs last month, largely through attrition and closing vacant roles, WCJB reported.
A university spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed the cuts were part of a 5 percent reduction in administrative expenses, which amounted to $20 million in cost savings for UF. In addition to the 75 jobs eliminated, UF closed its Office of Sustainability, reportedly cutting another three jobs.
UF is also shutting down its Health Science Center Police Service Technician program at the end of the year, which officials said will affect 15 positions, though seven are currently vacant.
Barnard College
The private women’s college affiliated with Columbia University, but with a separate and much smaller endowment, cut 77 jobs last month as part of a restructuring effort announced July 31.
Barnard president Laura Ann Rosenbury wrote in a message to campus that the cuts were a “painful moment” but the “strategic realignment” reflected “evolving operational needs.” She added that no faculty positions or instructional services personnel were included in the cuts.
Founded in 1889, Barnard had an endowment valued at $503 million in fiscal year 2024 and has dealt with rising debt in recent years.
University officials are working to shrink SOU’s budget from $71 million to a more manageable $60 million. In the short term that means finding $5 million in savings for the 2025–26 fiscal year.
The budget cuts will play out over three years and eliminate an estimated 65 jobs through a mix of voluntary retirements, leaving some positions vacant and cutting about 20 positions. SOU also plans to cut 15 majors and 11 minors, shrinking its academic portfolio as it restructures.
SOU president Rick Bailey is also taking a voluntary 20 percent pay cut amid budget issues.
Meredith College
Cost-cutting measures prompted layoffs at the private women’s college in North Carolina, with 6 percent of the workforce—roughly 25 employees—affected, local TV station ABC 11 reported.
None of Meredith’s full-time faculty members were laid off, according to ABC 11.
“These strategic budget reductions were necessary and proactive steps in preserving Meredith’s long-term financial strength and helping it grow and thrive for the future,” college officials wrote in a statement to media outlets detailing the reason for the layoffs. “When making budget adjustments, Meredith leaders focused on protecting programs and services essential to fulfilling its mission. These difficult decisions were made for the good of the College as a whole.”
Sullivan University
The private Kentucky university is cutting 21 jobs, seven of which are vacant, closing two educational sites and selling its only residence hall, The Louisville Courier Journal reported.
The changes come at a rocky time for the university, which was declared the worst company in the city to work for by LEO Weekly, another local news outlet, based on feedback on Glassdoor, a website used for job searches and employer reviews. Sullivan officials subsequently began offering a 1 percent 401(k) match, which officials told the Courier Journal was already planned.
Sullivan also parted ways with President Tim Swenson, who abruptly resigned last week. The university had placed Swenson on administrative leave just a few days prior. Officials wrote, in an email obtained by the newspaper, that he was placed on leave “to allow time for a review of internal matters and to ensure the process is handled fairly and without disruption.” Sullivan officials did not specify the reason for his departure in a message to employees.
Kalamazoo College
The small, private liberal arts college in Michigan laid off 11 staff members due to financial pressures, to enrollment challenges and “an inflationary environment,” MLive reported.
“This difficult decision was not made lightly, and it is part of a broader effort to ensure the long-term financial stability and sustainability of the institution,” officials said in a statement.
Xavier University
A challenging enrollment picture is driving layoffs at the private Catholic university, where officials are also cutting salaries and making other changes, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Though the full number of layoffs is unclear, a university spokesperson told the newspaper that the cuts include two jobs in Xavier’s executive cabinet as well as some temporary faculty and staff. University officials noted that no full-time faculty members have been part of the cuts.
Xavier will also maintain restrictions on nonessential travel.
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Dive Brief:
Operating margins at private nonprofit colleges have plummeted to their lowest levels in over a decade due to growing financial challenges, especially for tuition-dependent institutions, according to a new Fitch Ratings analysis.
The median adjusted operating margin, which includes endowment funds for operations, fell to -2.0% in fiscal 2024 for the 56 private nonprofit colleges in Fitch’s portfolio. Despite the median margin sitting squarely in negative territory, the highest-rated colleges still enjoyed positive operating margins.
Fitch analysts expect the credit environment for the U.S. higher education sector to deteriorate in 2025 year over year,with federal policy shifts likely to increase pressure on operations and revenue.
Dive Insight:
The Fitch analysis reflects the challenging financial environment that private nonprofit colleges are navigating. The litany of problems includes continued inflation, threats to federal funding and an expected decline in the number of high school graduates starting next year.
Amid these challenges, adjusted operating margins shrank for all types of colleges.
That includes the three private nonprofits with AAA ratings from Fitch — the highest one given by the credit rating agency, signaling an institution at very low risk of default. Their median adjusted operating margins declined to 8.4% in fiscal 2024. While “still strong,” that’s down from double-digit highs seen during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Fitch.
Colleges with AA ratings showed a median adjusted operating margin of 2.3%, while those with ratings below AA had negative margins, a continuation of a yearslong trend.
Lower-rated colleges tend to rely on tuition as their primary revenue source, while higher-rated colleges are more likely to get large contributions from their healthcare operations or investment returns, according to analysts.
“This growing credit differentiation within the sector highlights mounting financial challenges for less selective, tuition-dependent institutions,” they wrote.
Despite numerous challenges, private nonprofits brought in more tuition and fee revenue in fiscal 2024 than the year before. On average, AA-rated colleges and below saw this revenue stream increase between 1.2 and 3.8%,while institutions with AAA ratings saw a 0.1% decline.
However, this year has brought even more financial turbulence.
“Operating margins and financial flexibility will remain narrow in 2025, as further increases in tuition, if any, will likely be offset by losses in other revenue streams and are unlikely to be sufficient to preserve margins,” analysts wrote.
Financial challenges are not new to much of the higher education sector. But many well-known private research universities are also starting to feel the pressure due to massive drops in federal research funding under the second Trump administration.
The National Science Foundation, for instance, approved only $989 million in new grant funding from Jan. 1 through May 21, according to a recent analysis from The New York Times. That’s a massive 51% decline from the 10-year average over the same time period.
On top of the slowdown in new grant approvals, NSF has so far terminated some 1,600 active grants, totaling $1.5 billion in research funding.
The authors of this article were three tenured and tenure-track faculty members in a teacher preparation program at a small private college in upstate New York. In December 2023, the college announced its closure following the spring, 2024 semester. After the announcement of our small private liberal arts college, we found ourselves redefining and reinventing our careers. Based on this experience of shock, mourning, and rebirth, we have advice to offer colleagues, especially those in teacher education.
It is no secret that enrollment in educator preparation programs nationwide has decreased by one-third to one-half over the last ten years. Simultaneously, costs associated with teacher preparation programs have increased. Accreditation costs, capstone portfolio software, and national and state certification exams have contributed to the enrollment “chill.” Political rhetoric regarding a teacher’s worth, teachers’ qualifications, and perception of the “return on investment” of a college degree have also contributed to lower enrollment numbers. We believe this adverse environment will continue for the foreseeable future.
The confluence of the political, economic, and practical factors is often hidden from faculty during the interview process. The philosophy of shared governance, displaying a college’s financial statements and “health statistics” is usually shrouded in “finance speak” at shared governance meetings. The administration and board of trustees fear the information will reach the press, thus shining a light on small endowments and how tuition-driven small private colleges are faring in today’s competitive climate. That open sharing only makes matters worse for an institution struggling to survive.
Here is our message: Take heed if you are a faculty member in educator preparation. We, the authors of this article, shared the same experience of college closure and loss of employment. However, we saw it through three different lenses: Jenni was an early tenure-track Assistant Professor; Julie was an Assistant Professor applying for rank and tenure; and Terri was a long-tenured Associate Professor who had once served as interim dean. Though viewed differently, we agree that tenure, and the pursuit of it, means little if your institution closes.
Jenni, the early career Assistant Professor, was in her second year of teaching at the institution after leaving an even smaller liberal arts institution which she felt was on shaky financial footing. She had the additional joy and stress of being pregnant with her second child when her new employer announced closure. The college would cease all operations at the close of the spring semester. She was now marked by an unlucky streak of two colleges, two closures. These circumstances had nothing to do with her competency. Jenni coordinated advisory board meetings and acted as the accreditation liaison for her entire department, and her teaching evaluations were strong.
Julie, the mid-career Assistant Professor, submitted her tenure portfolio in October, only to discover that the institution she believed would be her future academic home would no longer exist past the spring semester. The announcement left her in limbo. The board had not approved those recommended for tenure. The college also stated it was not going to vote on those submissions. A dedicated professional, with service hours, a record of scholarship, and stellar teaching evaluations should receive advancement in rank and tenure. Not only was she worthy of such recognition, but the faculty also believed that governance committees should continue their work, and the board should honor commitments to faculty, especially in light of the closure announcement. Julie had to find new employment. The advancement in rank would speak well for her future employment and contract negotiations.
For Terri, the tenured Associate Professor, the announcement came, not as a shock, since many knew the institution had experienced significant financial cutbacks over the years. However, she was looking toward another 5-10 years of dedication to scholarly work and shaping new teachers. She had dedicated 24 years to the institution and thought other institutions would not wish to hire someone who would indeed receive Professor Emeritus status had she retired immediately. She had been department chair, served as interim dean, and successfully led the last accreditation visit for the School of Education.
No matter the lens, each of us experienced a sense of shock, anger, and denial. We were living examples of Kubler-Ross’s stages of death and dying. The announcement came at the end of the fall semester when we gather evidence for accreditation, grade capstone portfolios, and perhaps, mentor student teachers who may have been unsuccessful during their last semester. In teacher preparation programs, the end of a semester is more complicated due to the external accreditation demands. It is always stressful, and knowing we were losing our jobs created more havoc. In addition, the college administration asked faculty to help develop teach-out plans for every current student and review transfer agreements with other institutions that were circling, like vultures, to acquire our students.
Though we cannot fully speak for one another, we agree that the holidays were a blur. The college’s last spring semester was about to start, and we were trying to support one another while performing triage on students. Going to campus was likened to caregiving for someone in hospice. The death was sure to come. We knew the date of the end of life. Simultaneously, we had to prepare for our professional futures.
Our questions at the time were as follows: Will I need to find work in another state? How does losing my job impact tuition exchange? How will we find employment for the following academic year when many searches have closed? Who will hire me, pregnant? Who will hire me at my advanced career stage? Should we re-enter the PK-12 classroom?
Based on this experience, we wish to warn our colleagues in educator preparation at small private institutions nationwide. Having tenure, going up for tenure, and moving early in one’s career to another institution thought to be more stable, spared none of us. So, take our experience as a cautionary tale. The most beneficial action you take now may help you leverage your next position, within or outside teacher preparation.
First, diversify your academic portfolio.
Develop a secondary passion in online pedagogy in teacher preparation, all matters of accreditation, or teacher induction through your state education department. These diversified interests may create new possibilities in state government policy development, technology, or research efforts.
Secondly, get involved in state and local teacher preparation professional organizations.
The meaningful connections you make within those networks provide you with the “inside scoop” on possible job openings, some of which may enable you to stay in your current home. Other colleges and universities surrounding your current institution may have opportunities that do not appear evident during extreme stress.
Finally, let your work and research ethic at your current institution be outstanding.
Should you move to another educator preparation position, your work on college or university governance, your knowledge of accreditation and certification, the record of acting as an involved and innovative club advisor, and strong collaboration with PK-12 partners will serve you well during stressful times. Tenure is nice, but diversified interests, your passion, a record of leadership in state and national professional activities, and a history of a strong work ethic will prove highly beneficial.
In the end, Jenni, the early career faculty member found a position ten miles from her current college in a neighboring private institution that agreed, with state approval, to subsume current programs so students could continue their education uninterrupted. She is currently on a tenure track line and has a beautiful new son. The mid-career Assistant Professor, Julie, received advanced rank and tenure at the closing institution. She is now an Associate Professor under a new contract at a new public comprehensive institution. She relocated approximately 100 miles to be near her new position. The senior faculty member, Terri, was sought out for her knowledge regarding accreditation and certification but was granted Assistant Professor status. She teaches at an entirely online public institution and has started the tenure process again.
Clare Rigney is a rising second-year student at American University Washington College of Law and a FIRE summer intern.
After a news story last week that the University of Michigan was paying private investigators to spy on pro-Palestinian student protesters, the school quickly ended its contracts with the surveillance firm.
In case anyone is unaware, the year is 2025. Not 1984.
Now the university says this Orwellian practice has ended, but the chill on student speech will likely remain for some time.
On June 6, The Guardianreported on the story, citing multiple videos and student accounts of investigators cursing at students and threatening them. Between June 2023 and September 2024, U-M reportedly paid about $800,000 to the Detroit-based security company City Shield to carry out this surveillance instead of using the funds to increase the size of the campus police force.
Several of the targeted students were members of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, the local chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine, causing critics to accuse the school of targeting pro-Palestinian speech.
One student, Josiah Walker, said he counted 30 people following him at different times on and off-campus. (As a precaution, he started parking his car off-campus.) On one occasion, Walker believed a man at a campus protest was following him. The man seemed to have a speech impairment, so Walker felt bad about that assumption. However, he later saw the same man speaking in a completely normal manner. When Walker confronted him, the man pretended Walker was trying to rob him.
The whole incident was caught on camera.
On the recording, Walker said, “The degree to which all these entities are willing to go to target me is amazing. Guys, this doesn’t make sense. What are you doing? Leave me alone.”
To serve their proper function, universities must facilitate an open and collaborative learning environment as a marketplace of ideas. U-M ostensibly knows this, saying it values “an environment where all can participate, are invited to contribute, and have a sense of belonging.”
Surveillance and intimidation do not cultivate such an environment. U-M’s surveillance will make students want to look over their shoulders before seeking to use their right to free speech.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Healy v. James requires universities to uphold their students’ First Amendment rights. This extends even to students whose speech the university deems offensive or “antithetical” to the school’s goals.
In Healy, the Court emphasized the danger of an institution targeting a group of students as particularly dangerous based on their viewpoint, noting, “the precedents of this Court leave no room for the view that, because of the acknowledged need for order, First Amendment protections should apply with less force on college campuses than in the community at large.”
Indeed, an important function of college is to allow students to broaden their horizons and meet different kinds of people. And freedom of association allows them to seek out individuals whose beliefs align with theirs so that they can work toward a common goal.
Unfortunately, universities have used these chilling tactics against student political protestors for years.
Amid protests demanding sick pay for frontline workers, the University of Miami in 2020 used facial recognition technology to identify protestors. The university then hauled these students into meetings where they were forced to review Miami’s events policies.
“The take-home message that we got was basically, We’re watching you,” Esteban Wood, one of the student protesters, later said.
When colleges and universities surveil students, they chill speech and promote distrust between student activists and the police meant to protect them.
In 2018, Campus Safety Magazine revealed that the University of Virginia had contracted with a private service called Social Sentinel. This service used an algorithm to monitor students’ social media posts and, if it deemed it necessary, report them to the police.
That same year, FIRE reported on a similar situation at the University of North Carolina. During protests over a confederate statue, a UNC campus police officer masqueraded as an approachable civilian named “Victor” in order to gain information from protesters and track their movements. Later, when students confronted “Victor” in a police uniform, he revealed himself as Officer Hector Bridges, explaining he had pretended to be sympathetic to their cause as a part of his “work.”
“I”m representing the university right now,” Bridges admitted on video.
The UNC Police Department later released a statement saying the university had a practice of sending “plain clothes” officers to patrol the statue to purportedly “maintain student and public safety.”
Chilling student speech in the name of undisclosed and unspecified safety is nothing new. But if it is serious about change, it couldn’t hurt for U-M to start with reviewing its own policies. According to its Division of Public Safety and Security, its role is to foster “a safe and secure environment” where students learn to “challenge the present.” Furthermore, U-M’s Standard Practice Guide section on freedom of speech states that when any non-university security forces are needed, they should know and follow these policies.
While it’s possible to imagine a circumstance where student surveillance might be necessary, colleges should keep in mind that courts have generally disfavored such efforts. For example, in White v. Davis, the Supreme Court of California rebuked the Los Angeles Police Department’s unconstitutional surveillance of UCLA students:
The censorship of totalitarian regimes that so often condemns developments in art, science and politics is but a step removed from the inchoate surveillance of free discussion in the university; such intrusion stifles creativity and to a large degree shackles democracy.
When colleges and universities surveil students, they chill speech and promote distrust between student activists and the police meant to protect them. That can be dangerous for both the students and the officers. Police investigations will be more difficult if the student body does not trust them enough to cooperate when needed. Students may be less likely to contact the police for legitimate violations.
Colleges and universities should empower their students to boldly state their beliefs. That’s simply not possible if they are also hiring outside agencies to spy on them. While we are glad the University of Michigan ended the practice, this case should serve as a reminder that such heavy-handed surveillance tactics have no place at American universities.
