Class Clowns

How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education

Business & Finance, Business Reference, Education, Management & Leadership, Planning & Forecasting, Management
Cover of the book Class Clowns by Jonathan A. Knee, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jonathan A. Knee ISBN: 9780231543330
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: November 29, 2016
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Jonathan A. Knee
ISBN: 9780231543330
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: November 29, 2016
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

The past thirty years have seen dozens of otherwise successful investors try to improve education through the application of market principles. They have funneled billions of dollars into alternative schools, online education, and textbook publishing, and they have, with surprising regularity, lost their shirts.

In Class Clowns, professor and investment banker Jonathan A. Knee dissects what drives investors' efforts to improve education and why they consistently fail. Knee takes readers inside four spectacular financial failures in education: Rupert Murdoch's billion-dollar effort to reshape elementary education through technology; the unhappy investors—including hedge fund titan John Paulson—who lost billions in textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin; the abandonment of Knowledge Universe, Michael Milken's twenty-year mission to revolutionize the global education industry; and a look at Chris Whittle, founder of EdisonLearning and a pioneer of large-scale transformational educational ventures, who continues to attract investment despite decades of financial and operational disappointment.

Although deep belief in the curative powers of the market drove these initiatives, it was the investors' failure to appreciate market structure that doomed them. Knee asks: What makes a good education business? By contrasting rare successes, he finds a dozen broad lessons at the heart of these cautionary case studies. Class Clowns offers an important guide for public policy makers and guardrails for future investors, as well as an intelligent exposé for activists and teachers frustrated with the repeated underperformance of these attempts to shake up education.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The past thirty years have seen dozens of otherwise successful investors try to improve education through the application of market principles. They have funneled billions of dollars into alternative schools, online education, and textbook publishing, and they have, with surprising regularity, lost their shirts.

In Class Clowns, professor and investment banker Jonathan A. Knee dissects what drives investors' efforts to improve education and why they consistently fail. Knee takes readers inside four spectacular financial failures in education: Rupert Murdoch's billion-dollar effort to reshape elementary education through technology; the unhappy investors—including hedge fund titan John Paulson—who lost billions in textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin; the abandonment of Knowledge Universe, Michael Milken's twenty-year mission to revolutionize the global education industry; and a look at Chris Whittle, founder of EdisonLearning and a pioneer of large-scale transformational educational ventures, who continues to attract investment despite decades of financial and operational disappointment.

Although deep belief in the curative powers of the market drove these initiatives, it was the investors' failure to appreciate market structure that doomed them. Knee asks: What makes a good education business? By contrasting rare successes, he finds a dozen broad lessons at the heart of these cautionary case studies. Class Clowns offers an important guide for public policy makers and guardrails for future investors, as well as an intelligent exposé for activists and teachers frustrated with the repeated underperformance of these attempts to shake up education.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Love, Amy by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Wombs in Labor by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Roberto Bolaño's Fiction by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Stranger Than Paradise by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Tamil Love Poetry by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Islamophobia and the Novel by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Graphic Women by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book A Farewell to Truth by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Hog and Hominy by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Truth and the Past by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Criminal Lessons by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Lady in the Dark by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Inside Al Qaeda by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Sex and World Peace by Jonathan A. Knee
Cover of the book Visions of Dystopia in China’s New Historical Novels by Jonathan A. Knee
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy