The Imitation Game

"Can't repeat the past? Why of course you can!"Almost every independent and parochial school runs on a financial model it chose to imitate from wealthy universities: an endowment, an annual fund, a capital campaign. In this episode I diagnose where that model came from, why it fits a research university and strains a small tuition-funded school, and what a healthier one looks like.I trace the two bloodlines that ended up in the same place: the endowed prep academies born as junior colleges, and the Catholic schools built on the collection plate and the near-free labor of teaching sisters. The origins run from John Harvard’s 1638 bequest to Yale’s 1890 annual fund, and through the NAIS survey where more than 90% of heads named financial sustainability as what keeps them up at night.Then several moves already in use at schools that decided to stop performing: indexed tuition, auxiliary revenue that can outpace the cost curve, online learning, and shared back-office services across institutions. Plus one question worth taking to whoever keeps your books before the next budget meeting.Hit play. The doctor is in. Get full access to The School Doctor with John D'Adamo, Ph.D. at schooldoctor.substack.com/subscribe