Corporate Education

A long long time ago, I thought about how we deliver education to people in America.  It has changed over time.  In the early days, mentors took people under their wing.  Education was only available to a privileged class.

As America matured, the one-room schoolhouse happened but education was uneven at best.  Finally, we established a public school education system.  Churches established private school educational systems and that has evolved into what we have today.

Covid is blowing up education.

I have spoken to more people that have started educating kids at home.  It’s not surprising in some ways.  Parents never knew about their kids’ education really until Covid hit with kids taking classes at home.  Some were shocked at how the teachers were instructing their kids.  In other cases, many urban public school systems simply failed to teach anything to students.

What happens next?

I think it could go in a variety of ways.  Homeschooling was always a movement prior to Covid, and it just gets stronger.  Politicians are talking about spending more on public school education, but that is throwing money down the rat hole.  Why invest in something that has failed consistently over the course of time?

I have seen a lot of startups in education.  They are doing some pretty cool things, however, startups don’t have the infrastructure necessary to scale.  You are stuck with the totally broken public school system, a network of independent private schools, or religious schools.  They are all bureaucratic in their own ways, and startups often don’t fit with them since startups tend to break a lot of traditional rules.

I wonder if there is a role for big corporations in education?  Many of them have capital.  Heck, is Apple a computer company or the world’s largest hedge fund?  What if Apple or other companies set up their own network of schools?

They have an economic incentive to do so.  First and foremost, they’d be educating their future workforce.  The competition for talent is intense.  Bringing instruction and getting exposure to talent at the earliest stages could be a competitive advantage for companies.  No different than street agents beating the bushes for pro players on playgrounds all across the country.

There might be tax incentives as well.  I am not a GAAP CPA, but they might be able to write off their investment in education against revenue.  If we expect corporate taxes to go up at state and national levels that might be a good use of their capital.

Companies might be able to partner to create some really interesting schools.  What if Microsoft and the New York Stock Exchange partnered to teach kids math and technology?  What if a museum layered in education on history?  A drug company on science?

I don’t understand why anyone is against innovation away from public schools.  I hear a lot of comments about “my body my choice”.  Those same people tend to not believe in school choice.  Why are they against, “my future my choice”?

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