Navigating the Financial Terrain: Cross-School Trends & Pressures

By: Dr. Brett Jacobsen, SAIS President, and Sheri Burkeen, SAIS Director of Research & Resources

The November Pulse Perspectives survey of CFOs | business-office professionals captured a 32% response rate and highlights clear patterns in financial health, emerging risks, and budget pressures facing independent schools across the SAIS region. Key findings include:

• Financial health remains strong across the sector, with most schools rating themselves in the strong or average categories and very few reporting weakness. Scale continues to drive stability: 74% of large schools and 94% of extra-large schools report strong or very strong financial health, and 100% of schools with budgets over $30M describe their financial position as strong. Smaller schools (<$4M or <400 students) show more vulnerability.
• Rising operational costs have become a defining financial threat for schools of all sizes, outpacing every other risk and amplifying pressures on talent and program sustainability. Cost escalation affects 62.9% of all schools, surging to 77.3% among schools with $20–30M budgets, with deferred maintenance and faculty/staff recruitment and retention following close behind.
• Deferred maintenance represents the most widespread and structurally budget vulnerable, pointing to a compounding cycle of underinvestment in facilities. It impacts 34.8% of schools overall, rising to 50% in rural schools and 53.1% in very large schools, yet it remains the top target for budget cuts.

Collectively, the story in the data reveals an increasingly complex financial landscape in which scale, setting, and strategic investment choices play a defining role in each school’s stability amid mounting structural pressures.