Elementary and Secondary Schools (U.S.) — NAICS 6111

A Histometrics industry primer for public- and private-market investors

Reader's note — this is a single-child pass-through level. In the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the four-digit industry group 6111 contains exactly one five-digit industry, 61111 (which in turn contains one six-digit national industry, 611110). All three tiers describe the same set of establishments. This page gives the level's own ground-truth figures and a brief orientation; for the full treatment — investable names, deal history, regulation, and outlook — go straight to the 61111 primer.

1. Overview

NAICS 6111 covers the establishments that deliver K–12 education (kindergarten through 12th grade): elementary, middle, and high schools, plus kindergartens, boarding and prep schools, parochial schools, and schools serving students with disabilities [1]. By headcount it is one of the largest activities in the U.S. economy — but one of the least "investable" in the ordinary sense, because most of it is run by government, not by profit-seeking companies.

The single most important fact for an investor: about nine in ten enrolled children attend tax-funded public school districts, so only a thin, fast-changing fringe of the sector — virtual-school operators, for-profit charter managers, private-equity-backed tuition-school chains, and the software and content vendors that sell into schools — can actually be owned as equity [2]. See the 61111 primer for that full picture.

2. What's inside — and why the level equals its one child

At the four-digit level, NAICS 6111 rolls up a single five-digit industry:

Because 6111 has just one child, the four-digit "industry group" and the five-digit "industry" describe the same establishments (and, one tier down, the same as the six-digit 611110). There is no aggregation across siblings to do here: every statistic, business model, and risk at this level is inherited directly from 61111. NAICS keeps the tiers distinct only for structural consistency across the classification system, not because they differ in content. For all detail, read the 61111 primer.

Note what sits outside this level (each is a separate NAICS code): higher education (611210 junior colleges; 611310 colleges and universities), child day care (624410), exam prep and tutoring (611691), and educational support services (611710 — vendors that sell to schools rather than operate them) [1].

3. Size of this level

Because 6111 equals 61111, the rollup figures are the child's figures. Our ground-truth federal source for this level is the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP), 2023 [3]:

Our ground-truth source set for this level provides no industry-wide revenue, profit, or margin figure, so none is stated here. Annual payroll is a cost measure, not revenue.

The undercount caveat is severe at this level. CBP counts private-sector and independently-chartered employer establishments — it largely excludes government. The roughly 7.3 million people working in tax-funded public districts (the ~99,000 schools that teach nine in ten students) sit outside this frame because they are government employers [2]. So CBP's ~1.18 million employees and ~23,000 establishments essentially capture the commercial slice of the industry; the full economic activity is roughly seven times larger by employment and majority-public. Read these figures as a measure of the private opportunity, not of the whole sector.

4. Investable universe (where value concentrates)

Since this level is a single industry, value concentrates exactly as it does in 61111 — a strikingly thin list for equity investors:

• One U.S.-listed near-pure-play K–12 operator: Stride, Inc. (LRN), the largest operator of full-time online/blended K–12 schools. Almost every other scaled operator is private, nonprofit, or governmental.
• Adjacent public names in content, software, and tutoring (Graham Holdings, McGraw Hill, Pearson, Scholastic, Nerdy) — most sit in support-services codes, not school ownership.
• Private markets hold most of the scale: private-equity roll-ups of premium/international tuition schools (Nord Anglia — taken private at $14.5 billion in 2025 — Inspired, Cognita, GEMS, Spring), for-profit charter-management platforms, and K–12 software (PowerSchool, Renaissance).
• A much larger fixed-income universe: school-district general-obligation bonds and charter-school revenue bonds inside the roughly $4 trillion U.S. municipal market.

Full company tables, tickers, and ownership detail are in the 61111 primer.

5. How the money works

The level runs on three distinct economic engines, all detailed in 61111: (1) public districts — a tax-funded service, not a profit center, funded roughly 45% state / 41% local property tax / 14% federal, where an investor's only exposure is credit quality on their bonds; (2) private tuition schools — high-fixed-cost businesses driven by seat occupancy and net tuition (gross tuition minus financial aid), with strong operating leverage; and (3) charter and virtual operators — where public per-pupil funding "follows the student," the model equity investors actually buy, with for-profit managers typically earning a fee as a percentage of school revenue. Private tuition-school chains change hands at roughly 8–14× EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

6. Demand drivers

Same as 61111: compulsory education anchors durable baseline demand; demographics are the shrinking base driver (public enrollment projected to fall about 5.5% by 2031 — a "demographic cliff"); school-choice policy (vouchers and education savings accounts, or ESAs) is the fastest-moving lever, redirecting public dollars to private and charter providers; and online/blended learning, special education, and Sun Belt migration reshape demand at the margin. Net effect: growth is more likely from share shifts than from broad national enrollment growth.

7. Regulation

K–12 is heavily regulated and governed mostly at the state level — charter authorization, curriculum, teacher licensing, and most school finance are state and local. State voucher/ESA statutes (typically $6,000–$10,000 per student) are the main growth catalyst and are frequently litigated. Federal frameworks are historically modest (~8–14% of budgets): the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Title I, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The federal role is in flux — a 2025 executive order directed dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, with litigation ongoing. Full detail in 61111.

8. Consolidation

A government-dominated market with a growing competitive fringe and a highly fragmented private base — exactly the setup roll-up strategies target. Private equity has spent a decade assembling international and premium-tuition chains (Nord Anglia's $14.5 billion take-private is the marquee deal); a handful of for-profit managers and large nonprofit charter networks increasingly dominate charter operation; and the most scalable plays are software/content platforms (PowerSchool taken private at $5.6 billion in 2024). See 61111 for the deal record.

9. Risks

The level's risks are 61111's risks: the demographic cliff (a shrinking pool of school-age children); the ESSER fiscal cliff (nearly $190 billion of one-time COVID relief whose obligation deadline passed September 30, 2024); policy volatility (Department of Education restructuring, voucher litigation, shifting state budgets); labor cost and shortages (70–80% of budgets); pension/OPEB overhang for public credit; academic-outcome and reputational risk for for-profit and virtual operators; cybersecurity and student-data privacy; and the structural reality that much of the sector cannot be owned as equity or captured in business-census data.

10. How to invest & outlook

For most investors, "owning" this industry means either the single listed near-pure-play (Stride, LRN — a leveraged bet on virtual and choice-funded schooling), adjacent content/software/tutoring vendors, a municipal-bond allocation (school-district GO and charter revenue bonds), or — for the real private capital — private-equity exposure to tuition-school groups, charter-management platforms, K–12 software, and school real estate. Diligence the legal entity first: a nonprofit school, a public charter, a for-profit manager, and a building owner may share one campus but carry entirely different rights and cash flows.

Bottom line: NAICS 6111 is identical to its single child, 61111 (and to 611110 below it) — a huge, defensive, largely public industry that, for most of its mass, cannot be bought. The investable edge sits in the growing private and choice-funded fringe, riding the fastest expansion of U.S. school-choice policy in a generation against a demographic headwind. For the complete analysis, see the [61111 primer].

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 North American Industry Classification System Manual (definition of and exclusions from NAICS 611110 / 61111 / 6111). https://www.census.gov/naics/reference_files_tools/2022_NAICS_Manual.pdf
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Educational Services Employment for American Education Week (local-government schools 7,290,432; private schools 934,096 employees), 2024; National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) enrollment and school-count data. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/learning-about-educational-services-employment-for-american-education-week.htm
3. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns: 2023, NAICS 6111 (23,201 establishments; 1,176,824 employees; $56,820,606 thousand annual payroll; $13,652,752 thousand Q1 payroll) — Histometrics ground-truth stats for this level. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html

For the full source list (31 references covering investable companies, deal values, regulation, and finance data), see the 61111 primer.