The financial sustainability of faith-based schools is an important topic for everyone who benefits from the availability of Christian education in their community. This article introduces the finances of Christian schools and shares how expanding academic services online can improve the bottom line. Read on to explore pro forma options that Christian schools can use to fund the innovation of adding online courses to their face to face schools.
I have had the pleasure of meeting with hundreds of Christian school administrators this year at conferences and on their campuses. Our conversations often lead to a discussion of their biggest challenges, and I sometimes share the following advice on how to make positive changes. We live in an era of exponential change, and with every change comes an element of friction. Christian schools need strong leaders to meet changing expectations, manage new technologies, and confront elements of culture that conflict with a biblical worldview education (all within a finite budget). It is not hard to convince leaders of these facts. It is also important to affirm that some things should never change at a Christian school. What are some of these ‘challenges’ that Christian schools are facing? Here are a few facing leaders in 2018: Changes in Expectations: Parents seem to want it all but often are not able or willing to afford it 73% of parents identify technology skill development as an important workforce skill, yet 62% are concerned about too much screen time that could lead to unproductive technology use, poor health, and time-wasting habits Project-based learning, soft-skill development, entrepreneurship, and collaborative group work are desired to …
The following quote from Warren Buffet about the newspaper business reminded me of my childhood: “If Mr. Guttenberg had come up with the internet instead of movable type back in the late 15th century and for 400 years we had used the internet for news and all types of entertainment and all kinds of everything else and I came along one day and said I have got this wonderful idea. We are going to chop down some trees up in Canada and ship them to a paper mill which will cost us a fortune to run through and deliver newsprint and then we’ll ship that down to some newspaper. We’ll have a whole bunch of people staying up all night writing up things and then we’ll send a bunch of kids out the next day all over town delivering this thing and we are going to really wipe out the internet with this; it ain’t going to happen.” (Blodget, 2018) You see, growing up, I was a morning paperboy. I didn’t complain about rising at 5 AM and enjoyed the fruits of my labors. I also learned to love reading papers. But now, do you even know a paperboy? Could we find girls or boys willing to get up even if people wanted newspapers? For goodness sake, I don’t even …
Summer was a busy time when I was a school leader, yet my schedule was more my own. I encourage you to schedule time away from the office for reading, prayer and reflection. Here are some reading ideas, but you may also, like I did, have a stack beside your desk or a folder within Outlook to read!
The comparison of a retailer and an educational institution may seem a bit strange. However, they have a lot in common, and there are some clear corollaries that can be instructive when considering the challenges and changes facing both sectors.
Most students still learn using a method that has existed in our schools for over 100 years. In a typical classroom setting, students sit at desks in rows and the teacher “teaches” from the front of the room. The typical student has been trained since childhood for someone to give them information and take notes or listen. While the traditional classroom is adept at preparing students for industrial and knowledge-based jobs, it has not kept pace with preparing students for today’s economy that employs a greater share of workers in service and innovation-based economies.
