WELCOME TO NIPSA
There are many associations for educators, but only one for educators who are also entrepreneurs: NIPSA, the National Independent Private Schools Association. Founded in 1983 by a group of California school owners, NIPSA addresses the unique challenges and opportunities inherent in proprietary school operation.
First, let it be said that NIPSA schools share much of the same educational agenda as you would in any school, private or public. Most important, we also share a similar motivation: to provide children with the best education possible.
We are professional educators first and foremost. Many of us are former public school superintendents, principals, and teachers. Others come from university faculties or from families who have been involved in school operation for generations.
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
In 1978 my partner and I opened our first school. To say the least, it was a brave undertaking. We made the decision to incorporate as a for profit, tax paying school rather that a non-profit school for all of the reasons that anyone who invests their life's savings and opens a business could understand. We knew that we could educate children better, and more cost effectively than the public school, and make a profit. To us it seemed like being a tax paying school was more in keeping with the American way.
What we discovered was that not too many people understood how a school could also be a business. We found that we were discriminated against by local communities and by the federal government because we paid taxes. At the time, even the accrediting agencies would not visit nor accredit a school that was for profit. To us that seemed crazy! Then in the early 1980's we met the people at NIPSA. We finally had people whom we could talk to, other professionals who had taken the same risks as we had; people who really understood not only education and business, but also how the two belong together.
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