The Little Schools — Financial Sustainability of Small Adventist Schools

Executive summary

The Adventist K–12 education system in North America is in structural decline, with enrollment falling from 100–160 students per 1,000 church members in 1960 to below 60 per 1,000 by 2010. Academy enrollment collapsed from 30 per 1,000 members in 1980 to 8.6 per 1,000 by 2020 — a 71.3% decline. Small schools under 100 students, which constitute the majority of Adventist elementary schools, face acute financial sustainability challenges: tuition revenue cannot cover fixed costs, conference subsid...