Led By Zuckerberg, Billionaires Give $100M To Fund Private Elementary Schools

theodp writes: AltSchool, a 2-year-old software-fueled private elementary school initiative started by an ex-Googler, announced Monday a $100 million Series B round led by established VC firms and high-profile tech investors including Mark Zuckerberg, Laurene Powell Jobs, John Doerr, and Pierre Omidyar. AltSchool uses proprietary software that provides students with a personalized playlist lesson that teachers can keep close tabs on. Currently, a few hundred students in four Bay Area classrooms use AltSchool tech. Three more California classrooms, plus one in Brooklyn, are expected to come online this fall, plus one in Brooklyn. "We believe that every child should have access to an exceptional, personalized education that enables them to be happy and successful in an ever-changing world," reads AltSchool's mission statement. For $28,750-a-year, your kid can be one of them right now. Eventually, the plan is for the billionaire-bankrolled education magic to trickle down. AltSchool's pitch to investors, according to NPR, is that one day, charter schools or even regular public schools could outsource many basic functions to its software platform.

Comments

trickle down economics

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck trickle down economics. Schools should be mandatory. Schools should be funded equally. And if rich fuckers want a better education for their kids, key them improve the whole system.

This is a great way of creating a caste system like what already happens on the east coast if you didn't go to some fancy prep school.

As much as I hate government, this is a good place to apply heavy regulation, at least in terms of funding and talent disparities.

The beginning of the headline is a tad misleading

[stephanruby]

The beginning of the headline is a tad misleading

Led By Zuckerberg, Billionaires Give $100M To Fund Private Elementary Schools

Would the same wording have been used in this instance.

Led By Zuckerberg, Billionaires Give $100M To Fund Uber

No, right? This isn't a gift. It's an investment. Also, the fund is going to a single company called AltSchool.

I know a better headline I'd like to see ...

[Qbertino]

I know a better headline I'd like to see: "New fair taxes enable feasible education budget. Donations not neccesary anymore." How about that, hu? ... Just saying sometimes I'm glad I live in Germany (allthough taxation could use a redo here aswell).

for anyone who doesn't see anything wrong here:

[circletimessquare]

the ideal is a meritocracy- if you work hard, you're rich. if you don't work, you're poor

that's the ideal

of course reality means we have rich kids who don't do shit and can't fail, or whose dad gets them a cushy do nothing job with his friends at the golf club

it also means there are poor people who are busting their asses at two full time jobs who will never get ahead, barely tread water, and are one accident or medical problem away from losing everything, due to depressed wages because of power imbalances, and an insane healthcare system. and poor people on assistance who don't work simply because the financial incentive is to stay not working: it pays more

so we do not live in a meritocracy

we should, of course. and we should try to model our society on that ideal

and one way we do that is we guarantee a baseline of medical care and education to everyone

but if being poor means your education will be pathetic, you'll stay poor. and if you're rich and are a loser flunkie who never tries in school but still gets ahead due to connections

we WANT to subsidize poor people's healthcare and education, so we can actually and honestly say "you're poor because you don't try." we can't say that with honesty today. if we don't actually have everyone STARTING on level ground. the ideal of meritocracy requires everyone to start at roughly the same spot. then, indeed, you can criticize people for being poor, and laud people for being rich. rather than our increasing classist reality in the usa of a shirnking middle class, a rich kid who cannot fail and does nothing, and a poor person who cannot succeed and works his ass off

in fact, the usa is not the world leader in social mobility, the ability of the poor to get ahead by hard work

that title goes to "gasp" nordic countries, evil "socialist" countries, where people are happier and richer than "capitalist" america, which really isn't capitalist in the meritocratic sense, but more like plutocratic rent-seeking, social darwinistic fuck-you-i-got-mine-die-in-the-street america