Entries by Michael Soulé

Sustainability: History of Funding for Waldorf Schools

6.  The history and challenges of school financing in the Waldorf Movement It is essential to have an understanding of the history and context for the challenges of funding for Waldorf Education since the beginning. Gary Lamb has collected, in the early chapters of his book, The Social Mission of Waldorf Education, a clear and […]

Waldorf Tuition: Gift or Investment or Something In Between?

Strong gusts of wind drive sheets of rain against the rhythmi­cally moving wind­shield wipers as Brenda and I drive from Cambridge to Lexington. We are going to an open meeting at the Lexington Waldorf School to discuss school finances. The meeting is to be chaired by the president of the Board, and in attendance to answer […]

Funding for Australian Steiner Schools: Benefits, Challenges and Lessons of Government Support

 In this essay by the Head of the Steiner Education Assn. in Australia, Tracey Puckeridge discusses the funding structure of Australian Steiner schools and offers an assessment of the benefits, drawbacks and practical realities of the current government funding for Steiner Schools.  Government funding for Steiner and other independent schools in Australia has been available […]

The Free Education Group at Michael Hall School in England : 1977-80

It was the late 1970’s and a number of us with children at Michael Hall, a well- established Waldorf school in Forest Row, Sussex, had an intense interest in Steiner’s social and economic ideas. We wanted to get away from the fee for service model of set tuitions and began talking to the faculty and […]

Centre for Associative Economics, UK

Associative Economics The Centre for Associative Economics in the UK offers a website, publications, a monthly newsletter, seminars and access to research on Associative Economic s based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner and many others. These resources provide a wealth of insights into new economic thinking. Founder Christopher Houghton Budd focusses his work also […]

Sustainability: Enrollment and Fundraising

5. Waldorf Movement Successes to Strengthen Enrollment and Fundraising  It is generally true that schools with more students have a stronger financial picture and that schools that are more effective at development work and fundraising also feel a reduction in the pressure that high tuitions place on parents. While these two areas, enrollment and fundraising, […]

Sustainability: School Finances and School Choice

2. The Intersection of School Finances and School Choice  Initiatives in the US around School Choice offer a wealth of insights into ways we can support the transformation of educational funding. The School Choice movement imagines a possible future where the social impulse of Waldorf education and its accessibility to more families of all economic […]

Sustainability: Rethinking Tuition

3. Rethinking Tuition  How we think about tuition, whether it is viewed as a payment, a mandatory contribution or a gift, has a significant effect on the financial relationships in the school and especially on development work and fundraising. The whole avenue of concerted, intentional, and value-driven development work is longing for further evolution. In […]