Finance Poses Top Concern for Superintendents This Year, Survey Shows
Since 2020, superintendents have endured a rollercoaster of challenges like a pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and political battles over topics of gender, sexuality and diversity in schools. But a top concern today boils down to what keeps school doors open: finance.
The School Superintendents Association, which publishes a national district leader survey every five years, found in a Dec. 4 study that finance and budget problems are consuming the most time and inhibiting job effectiveness. It also details small gains in superintendent gender and race diversity, but researchers say wide gaps still remain.
The nonprofit collected responses in September 2024 from nearly 1,100 superintendents from 49 states. About 56% worked in rural districts, while 13% were in a small city and 31% in a suburban or urban area.
About 62% of superintendents said inadequate financing of schools was the largest issue that hindered their job effectiveness, but only 18% chose fiscal management as a top strength. More than half (54%) of respondents said financial issues consumed most of their time, an increase from 45% in 2020.
Underfunding from state governments, the expiration of federal pandemic aid, enrollment declines and funding cuts under the Trump administration have contributed to budget shortfalls for many U.S. districts. The federal education budget for fiscal year 2026 is still under negotiation and could include billions of dollars in reductions.
In a Dec. 4 virtual briefing about the results, Ann LoBue, a Columbia University policy analyst and one of the study’s contributors, said decreased school funding hasn’t kept up with the rising costs of student and family needs.
“As the survey showed, it’s money that matters,” she said. “When asked about the most important problem facing the districts they lead, funding was the most common answer.”
More than one-third of superintendents surveyed said finance and budget planning is a needed area of improvement. Other top answers included stress management, school reform, district politics and community relations. Nearly half of respondents said their district’s financial condition was the most important factor in decisionmaking.
David Law, superintendent of Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota, said at the briefing that the state education budget is declining as the aging population increases. While lobbying in the legislature this year, he reminded lawmakers that schools aren’t asking for more money, but instead for a smaller reduction of state aid.
“Our portion of the state budget and the federal budget is shrinking at a time [when] utilities and health care and transportation are growing at three and four times the rate of investment,” he said. “As a superintendent, we’re having all these conversations about finances, because we’re in this unprecedented time where we’re getting less and things are costing more at an accelerated rate.”
The survey also explored demographics among superintendents nationwide. About 10% of respondents were people of color, an increase from nearly 9% in 2020. The percentage of female superintendents increased from 27% in 2020 to 30% in 2025.
Despite the upward trend, survey authors said in the briefing that there’s still a lot of work to do to improve gender and race equity among U.S. superintendents.
The study found that superintendents who were female and identified as Black or Hispanic were more likely to lead districts with higher diversity and more student needs. About 18% of males reached superintendency with just two to four years of teaching experience, versus 9% of females. About 25% of female superintendents had more than 13 years as a classroom teacher, compared with 15% of men.
While 48% of white superintendents said they felt very supported by their communities, only 37% of Black district leaders said the same.
The survey also projected the percentage of superintendents of color would increase to 12% by 2030. Shawn Joseph, a contributor to the study and superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, said during the briefing that he’s not optimistic the nation will reach that goal.
“We’ve got a problem in America with how we prepare leaders of color. In many institutions around the country, you’ll go through a master’s program, a doctoral program and you’ll never experience frameworks that center Black thought or Latinx thought,” he said. “I went to some decent universities to get my doctorate [and] master’s and I was ill equipped to come out and be a Black superintendent.”
Joseph recommended that professional learning, conferences and workshops focused on superintendent diversity should become more accessible to local leaders to improve the numbers.
In other survey findings: Three-quarters of superintendents said they are spending less time with their family, and 56% reported having fewer or no children because of the job.
About 89% said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their job, compared with 92% in 2020. Nearly 60% of those surveyed said they planned on being a superintendent in the next five years, which is the same finding as in the 2020 survey. In 2010, the response was 51%.
