For-Profit Education Just Got a Major Boost

Rand is a huge, nonprofit research firm. Its reports are highly regarded by folks in top government positions.

Rand’s 2024 survey found that just 42% of teachers say that the stress and disappointment of their job is “worth it.” That’s the lowest level going back to the start of the survey in 2016. Back then, 75% of teachers said the stress was worth it.

Rand surveyed nearly 1,500 teachers. And 60% of them reported feelings of burnout.

Not surprisingly, “managing student behavior” topped the list for sources of teacher stress. Second place was “my salary is too low.”

In short, America’s teachers are fed up.

Their students are glued to their phones and can’t focus. And behavior has gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amy Johnson – a fifth-grade teacher in Randolph, Vermont – has seen the decline firsthand. In a 2022 interview with the Washington Post, she said…

Parents are fed up as well…

According to the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, more than 60% of parents searched for a new school for their kids last year. That’s down from 72% in 2023. But it’s up from 52% in 2022.

Notably, the big increases in interest were for homeschooling, private or faith-based schools, and full-time online schools.

But the clearest indicator of parents’ dissatisfaction is public-school enrollment. And when we add it all up, we see a trend forming…

More Folks Are Turning Away From Public Schools

The latest data shows that 49.5 million children were enrolled in U.S. public schools for the 2023-to-2024 school year. That was down 0.2% from the previous year. And it was down 2.5% from pre-pandemic (2019) levels.

That decline is a big deal…

Public-school funding is directly tied to enrollment – at both the federal and state levels. Fewer students mean even tighter school budgets.

By comparison, charter-school enrollment is up more than 7% from pre-pandemic levels. And the percentage of U.S. kids getting homeschooled is also up since 2019.

Meanwhile, politicians are also jumping on the anti-public-school trend…

Put simply, school choice has become a hot-button issue across the country.

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the secretary of education to prioritize school-choice programs.

Specifically, the order aims to “expand educational choice and support families who choose educational alternatives to governmental entities, including private and faith-based options.”

Last month, Texas passed a new law creating one of the nation’s biggest school-choice programs – totaling $1 billion. It will provide up to $10,000 a year in vouchers for students who attend private school – and $2,000 a year for homeschooled kids.

And a handful of other states have already passed their own school-choice legislation in 2025 – including Indiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Putting it all together, we can see a clear trend…

Folks are unhappy with the state of our public schools. Teachers are burning out. Parents are switching schools at an increasing rate. And politicians are freeing up taxpayer money for families who choose an alternative to traditional public schooling.

This trend creates a perfect environment for companies that specialize in K-12 education.

And I’m seeing that play out in the Power Gauge more broadly with education stocks…

I made a list of the top 10 U.S. education stocks by market capitalization. And it’s clear that they’re producing results.

The list is up more than 11% so far this year. That’s compared with the S&P 500 Index’s nearly 3% return over the same time frame. And none of the rated stocks earn a “bearish” or worse rating.

If you aren’t paying attention to this space already… now is the time.

Good investing,

Marc Chaikin