Also called: Chief financial officer (schools), Business administrator
Manages a district's money: budgets, payroll, purchasing, and audits.
District CFOs build budgets with the board, forecast enrollment and tax revenue, manage bond issues for new schools, and keep everything legal. It's a finance career inside education.
Estimate based on BLS financial managers adjusted for public sector.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Master's degree, about 8 years after high school. Bachelor's in accounting or finance; many have a CPA, MBA, or school business official certification.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, Certification. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Accounting, Finance, Public Administration.
Growing about average. Steady; every district needs one.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI automates budgeting, forecasting and audit prep, trimming finance staff; board negotiations and legal accountability stay with the CFO.
Classes: Accounting, AP Statistics, AP Economics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-3031.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.