that public and private college/universities use to prepare their various annual financial statements. Since public schools are funded by taxpayers' dollars, it makes sense that the public has a vested interest in holding those schools accountable in some way. While private schools may not be any different than a private company that doesn't trade stock on any of the stock exchanges. A private company likely discloses it financial statements to its investors, but it may not be required to do so to the public because the public really doesn't have any fiduciary responsibility within the company. Now if the private school receives any sort of funding from the federal or state government, then the school is required to disclose certain financial information (i.e. A-133 audit reports for federal funding) as a condition for accepting the funding from the government.