The Nation: Venture Capitalists Poised to ‘Disrupt’ (Privatize) the Education Market

[Auggie]

Unlike in healthcare, energy and other areas of the economy that have moved from public to private hands, K-through-12 education has stubbornly remained largely out of the control of investors.

Next year, the market size of K-12 education is projected to be $788.7 billion. And currently, much of that money is spent in the public sector. “It’s really the last honeypot for Wall Street,” says Donald Cohen, the executive director of In the Public Interest, a think tank that tracks the privatization of roads, prisons, schools and other parts of the economy.

That might be changing soon as barriers to investment are rapidly fading. As Eric Hippeau, a partner with Lerer Ventures, the venture capital firm behind viral entertainment company BuzzFeed and several education start-ups, has argued, despite the opposition of “unions, public school bureaucracies, and parents,” the “education market is ripe for disruption.”

Hippeau’s vision is the growing sentiment among investors. Education technology firms secured a record $1.25 billion in investments across 378 deals in 2013, while analysts predict that number will continue to surge this year. Since 2010, (Author of Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow Michael) Moe has led what has been billed as the premiere education investment conference, which takes place annually in Scottsdale, Arizona. The first year attracted around 370 people and 55 presenting companies. This year, that number soared to over 2,000 with over 290 presenting companies and speeches by luminaries including former Governor Jeb Bush, Magic Johnson and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. One of the largest start-ups, a Herndon, Virginia–based company called K12 Inc., a for-profit largely online charter chain, posted nearly $1 billion in annual revenue for its last fiscal year in August.

FULL STORY: http://www.thenation.com/article/181762/venture-capitalists-are-poised-disrupt-everything-about-education-market

Q: What kind of influence will the for-profit education sector attempt to exert over education policy? (A: Doesn't matter, as long as profits are maximized)

Q: If school reform is crafted to maximize the potential for investor profit, will students benefit, as boosters claim—or will they suffer? (A: Do you really have to ask?)

[Rex]

1. Vulture capitalism eyes the last remaining survivor with money, starts circling with anticipation.

Wall Street won't be happy until we live in some kind of libertarian nightmare.

[Auggie]

5. If they get their way it'll fall like dominos: education, police/fire, water, social security ...

[BillZBubb]

2. Will the right wing convince people that primary education is a "market"?

If they can do that, they will succeed.

The left needs to fight back against this nonsense. Do the parents of America really want their children going to Koch Industries High School taking Pepsi Cola Junior English and Monsanto Chemistry II classes?

[questionseverything]

4. here on du the left is defending it

look at this ridiculous thread......http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025566838


the lengths people went to to defend an obvious mistake were incredible

[Mc Mike]

15. Respectfully disagree, qe.

Madfl is more left/progressive than the post-ers who regularly weigh in to disagree with her o.p.s.

[questionseverything]

18. i guess i was not clear

i support madflo 100%

her op pointed out a sloppy question on the cc test...the test asks for a subtraction sentence and then offers only addition sentences

but many "posters from the left" bent over backwards to say she was wrong

when we can no longer agree on what symbol is used for subtraction (-) and what symbol is used for addition (+) we are in deep shit!!

[Mc Mike]

22. My fault for the misunderstanding, I think.

It's just an issue of definitions, probably. When I read Mad's stuff, it seems like her gadfly opponents are usually to the right, more centrist, establishment, or third way.

I appreciate your link to her o.p. I agree with your analysis re the symbology. The test creators are either woefully incapable in intelligence terms and shouldn't be in charge, or purposefully messing with our kids' heads.

[questionseverything]

25. i called her opponents liberals because that is how they describe themselves

but i probably should of said "liberals"

anyways it really is no mystery, the right has openly been trying to defund public education for a while now

sloppy tests used to judge teachers and schools are just part of the problem,wether by design or incompetence the results are the same

[Mc Mike]

29. The right does hate an educated populace.

You're right about the results of students 'failing' to give correct answers to these non-answerable questions. It shows that the teachers 'failed' and the students 'failed', so public ed should be privatized.

[Dirty Socialist]

3. And Pay Teachers 60 Percent of What Public Schools Pay

I have seen that statistic on here before. How dare the unions help teachers earn a living wage! Why don't they chant the "Cheap Labor" mantra?

[Auggie]

6. I can't imagine teachers making less than they are now

[Calista241]

20. I looked up teaching in Georgia (where i live) and this is what i found:

The average teacher in Georgia makes $53,010 per year, which is 144% of the state average income.

[link:http://teach.com/states/become-a-teacher-in-georgia|

[Starry Messenger]

7. Liberals are embracing this travesty too.

I don't want to hear any sad noises when all the schools are owned by Walmart. We gave you all plenty of warning.

[woo me with science]

8. You mean corporate Democrats.

They aren't liberals.

[TBF]

9. The corporate dems are embracing

because they see $$$, but I think Starry is referring to the democrats who are endorsing common core and assorted "reforms" simply because they are coming from the Obama administration. I think many of these folks simply want to support their president and perhaps don't understand how it is likely to play out. Sadly it will be the field of teaching and students themselves who will suffer the most as wall street decides how to best make a profit off them.

[woo me with science]

11. Gotcha.

Yeah, education is one of the most successfully propagandized areas of policy.

That's why it's so important to keep making the corporate motives explicit.

Education: The "Big Enchilada"
http://www.billtotten.blogspot.com/2007/08/big-enchilada.html

Some years ago, a friend who works on Wall Street handed me a stock-market prospectus in which a group of analysts at an investment-banking firm known as Montgomery Securities described the financial benefits to be derived from privatizing our public schools. "The education industry", according to these analysts, "represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control" that "have either voluntarily opened" or, they note in pointed terms, have "been forced" to open up to private enterprise.

Indeed, they write, "the education industry represents the largest market opportunity" since health-care services were privatized during the 1970s... "The larger developing opportunity is in the K-12 EMO market, led by private elementary school providers..." From the point of view of private profit, one of these analysts enthusiastically observes, "the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada."

[Wella]

24. +1

/

[Starry Messenger]

10. I guess I should say they call themselves liberals.

I know people in the Bay Area who are practically hippies in every way, but they love charter schools.

[woo me with science]

12. Virtually every single issue out there comes down to the One Percent finding ways to profit

from every single need we have, every aspect of our lives.

They get away with it because they propagandize every issue separately

When people can see the pattern, they can see through the propaganda.

[TBF]

13. You got it -

and unfortunately it's hard for some people to sort through those layers when it's the party that is supposed to be for the people advocating such measures.

[Starry Messenger]

14. Well said.

I've encountered some activists who insist public education *is* the 1%, and causes capitalism. They are very dug in about it and can be disruptive in movement work.

Otherwise we wouldn't have such a proliferation of charters in Oakland.

When I made my initial post on Thursday, I'd just come back from there, having passed three charter schools just getting off the freeway in Fruitvale.

One was literally backed up next to a vacant field full of weeds and some refuse.

If you met me, you wouldn't think such a sweet little schoolmarm could be filled with such rage. I'm still pissed.

[Auggie]

17. +1,000,000

[hifiguy]

21. Perhaps the most succinct explanation of just why

this nation is headed irreversibly down the toilet.

[WinkyDink]

16. It ain't the learning; it's the earning.

Try the veal.

[liberal_at_heart]

19. both parties are letting this happen. I know many democrats would love to pretend this issue does't

exist but it will come back to hurt the democrats in elections. This whole rah rah sis boom bah I have to vote for my team no matter what. My team must win no matter what will come back to hurt the democrats in elections.

[bbgrunt]

28. sad but true.

[leftstreet]

23. DURec

[think]

26. Why does this remind me of the For Profit Prison Industry? /nt

[bbgrunt]

27. if money trumps war, why not education?