For an organization dedicated to “promoting equity in education,” the College Board sure knows how to turn a profit. Officially classified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the College Board’s reported revenue totaled over $1 billion in 2022, with more than $500 million coming from Advanced Placement (AP) exams alone. Despite their lofty claims of public service, I can’t help but ask: where does all that money actually go?
With an annual salary of $1.8 million, CEO David Coleman is certainly compensated well for his commitment to “equity.”And it doesn’t stop there– Coleman and other executives collectively earn over $8 million a year. While nonprofits are allowed to pay employees a “reasonable” salary, the College Board’s executive payroll seems to stretch the definition, particularly given their hefty offshore investments: Coleman’s $162 million parked in Caribbean tax havens (according to Forbes) and College Board’s $400 million in hedge funds and private equity. It’s an impressive portfolio for an organization supposedly focused on students’ educational success.
The College Board has held a monopoly over standardized testing in the United States since 1955, and with no competitors, they’ve structured their system to rake in revenue at every step. Consider the SAT, a test that costs students $60– plus an extra $18 if they want to review their answers, and another $12 for every score report sent to colleges. Sending AP scores? That’s $15 per college. Deciding to cancel a test? That’s a $40 fee. For an organization that ostensibly promotes access, their fees pile up fast.
I have personally spent about $1200 on AP exams and SATs alone, not including the $150 on test prep books. I didn’t even end up sending my SAT scores, but if I had, I would’ve paid an additional $200. Multiply that by millions of students across the country and the figures start to look more like a Wall Street ledger than an educational nonprofit’s balance sheet.
To take an AP exam, students fork over $98 per test. And while there’s a discount of $36 for those needing financial aid, states still ended up covering around $37 million in AP exam fees last year alone. Yet despite these fees and College Board’s billion-dollar revenue, only about 10% of its income goes toward fee discounts. In other words, the help for low-income students– often cited as a reason for their nonprofit status– seems minimal at best.
And does the testing investment pay off for those students? Apparently not. Of the 1.1 million AP exams taken by low-income students in 2023, 60% resulted in failing scores. Are these students really benefitting, or are they simply adding to the College Board’s revenue stream?
The IRS grants the College Board’s nonprofit status on the basis that it provides a “public benefit.” However, unlike organizations like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital– which openly shares details on how its revenue supports its mission– we have very little transparency from the College Board on how its funds help students. Despite amassing $1.6 billion in cash and investments and operating at a 14% profit margin, the organization provides few specifics about where those resources are directed.
For an entity claiming to exist for the greater good, the numbers suggest a different story: the College Board appears to be sitting on its profits while investing in tax havens and private equity, benefiting its executives more than the students it claims to serve.
As more students and educators start to question the College Board’s practices, some are calling for a closer look at its nonprofit status. With mounting evidence that it functions more like a corporate giant than a charitable organization, the calls for reform are only growing louder. For now, though, students will continue to pay the fees– and the College Board will continue to collect. College Board has a monopoly on American education… yet somehow, it’s not educating Americans.
