For-profit schools are not beholden to educational missions

Private K-12 schools rely on tuition; colleges rely on funding for research

Tuition, endowments, donors, and grants often fund private schools, allowing them to eschew national curriculum standards. Private colleges and universities also charge tuition, but often rely on federal funding for research.

Private schools don’t inherently boost student performance

High test scores in private schools often reflect affluent, selective student bodies—not superior instruction. Studies show that private school advantages stem largely from socioeconomic factors and admission policies, not institutional quality.

Charter schools are publicly funded, autonomous schools

Charter schools are tuition-free, publicly funded institutions operating under a contract ("charter") that grants autonomy in curriculum, staffing, and budgeting in exchange for accountability to performance metrics. They serve millions of students nationwide.

The most expensive private schools in the US

Private schools can offer students specialized education and one-of-a-kind opportunities, but those often come with a price, with some schools charging close to six figures. Check out this list of the four most expensive American private schools, which charge more than most four-year colleges.

Private schools are free to experiment with teaching styles

Because they’re not beholden to national curricula, private school teachers can use different pedagogical approaches, like Harkness, which was developed at New Hampshire’s Phillips Exeter Academy. The method brings students to a large round oval table and encourages them to lead the lesson through inquiry.

School choice allows families to use public funds for private education

Some private school advocates support school choice, a broad policy that provides families with public money (sometimes called “vouchers”) to spend on private education, including religiously affiliated schools.

Private education offered an alternative for Black Americans

The early public school system was ostensibly designed for all Americans, but it was also racially segregated, offering substandard schools for Black Americans. Some private schools were founded to combat that problem, including St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, the United States' oldest predominantly Black Catholic high school.

Private credit is a nonbank loan made directly to a business

Similar to private equity, private credit is part of the private markets world. Both strategies offer illiquid, privately negotiated investments for privately held companies. Unlike private equity investors, however, private credit investors typically do not take ownership stakes in the companies they invest in.

College endowments FAQ

​The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) is a membership organization representing chief administrative and financial officers at colleges and universities. This page addresses 10 common questions about college endowments, including their purposes, management, and spending policies. Learn more about how endowments support institutional missions and financial sustainability.

Credit unions, explained

Proponents of credit unions often point to the fact they’re not-for-profit cooperatives instead of for-profit businesses as a key selling point. This explainer dives into what this looks like in action—instead of pocketing the profits from interest rates, credit unions reinvest that money into the products and services they offer. For customers, this tends to create a more personal and community-oriented experience.

Nonprofit theaters are incubators for new theater

Unlike commercial Broadway theaters, ticket sales account for only a fraction of nonprofit theaters' income. This lets them take chances on new playwrights and innovative shows, including Lin Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton" and Stephen Sondheim's "Sunday in the Park with George."

Why companies go public

There are many ways the founders of private companies can make money off an exit. They could sell the company to a larger organization, for instance. But there are unique benefits to having a company listed on the stock market that aren’t often outlined in news alerts about IPOs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many private schools offered in-person classes

By early 2021, approximately 76% of private schools offered some form of in-person learning compared with 38% of public schools.

Find out ways to get lower rates on private loans, such as applying with a cosigner

More borrowers are being pushed to opt for private student loans as changes to federal borrowing caps and repayment plans are implemented. Private lenders typically advertise interest rates that fall anywhere between sub-3% and 15% or higher.

Is college worth it?

Higher education has long been viewed as a stepping stone to more stable and higher-paying careers. Estimates suggest a college degree nearly triples average lifetime earnings. But the perception of value is different—only 22% of Americans say college is worth taking out loans for.

The pedigree of one’s MBA program matters a lot to elite employers

One expert even said that having an MBA from a prestigious school is “non-negotiable” for certain employers, such as elite management consulting, investment banking, and private equity.

The funeral home industry is increasingly consolidating via private equity firms

A growing share of the funeral home industry is being acquired by private equity-backed firms. A 2022 article states that about 20% of this $23B business is owned by funeral home chains, and private equity-backed firms own about a quarter of those.

How tax breaks power the PGA Tour, a nonprofit organization

When the PGA was formed in 1916, its primary objective was to grow the game of golf, so it was established as a nonprofit. When the PGA Tour split off in 1968, that nonprofit status stayed. But as revenue jumped past $1B, questions began to arise. This "Outside the Lines" investigation from 2013 dives into their tax records and details how much the PGA actually gives to charity.

No school has lost federal funding because of a Title IX violation

While the law threatens the suspension of federal funds for schools violating the requirements of the law, it has yet to happen. Instead, the Office for Civil Rights has deemed schools working to correct the issues conditionally compliant.

A separate agency within the Department of the Interior manages the education of Native Americans on reservations

The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), housed under the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, manages 183 elementary and secondary schools on 64 reservations across 23 states, serving around 40,000 Native American K–12 students outside state public systems.

Understanding how non-profit entities manage electric grids to ensure supply-demand balance

Independent System Operators in smaller areas and Regional Transmission Organizations that operate across multiple states run wholesale electricity markets. Electricity suppliers can submit competitive bids to meet estimated demand in day-ahead markets while keeping consumer costs low. ISOs and RCOs also inform markets of deviations in these estimates so that suppliers can adjust how much power they generate, which is then bought and sold in real time.

People who take out payday loans often know they are a bad deal

Despite common criticism that payday lenders take advantage of uninformed borrowers, some people who take out payday loans know they are usually a bad deal, but often feel like they don't have any other options. Payday loans are often considered a symptom of poverty. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Revocable trusts are typically subject to estate taxes

Irrevocable trusts, however, are not. Both types help beneficiaries avoid probate, the lengthy court process that administers a person’s estate upon death.

The Ethereum Foundation’s latest report

The Ethereum Foundation is a nonprofit organization supporting Ethereum in several ways. These include providing grants to developers who want to build on the blockchain, and hosting events promoting crypto’s future, like Devcon. This annual report grants a peek into the nonprofit’s role in Ethereum's operations and the values it seeks to support through its work. The nonprofit’s frontline involvement is another differentiating factor between Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

A company is ‘in the black’ if it is profitable

If a company is “in the red,” however, it is unprofitable. The expressions stem from the days before computers were widely used in accounting, when accountants updated financial data in their books by hand, using different colored ink (black and red) to signal a company's profitability.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Learn how monoclonal antibodies, which mimic the body's antibodies, can fight diseases like Ebola.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.