Whittle School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[url]https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/amp22084801/chris-whittle-to-launch-global-academy-whittle-school-and-studios/

A friend forwarded this to us - not the most flattering look behind the scenes of this organization

He looks scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The for-profit part is crazy!

Why is this crazy? How does for profit hurt you?

How does for profit benefit the students?

From the article:

In truth, Whittle has never had much to say about the things most people talk about when the subject is schools: teaching methods, subject areas, the mysterious working of children’s minds. “He promotes education reform but can’t name a single reformer,” a journalist noted in 1990, and this still seems more or less true. In a conversation that lasts an hour and three quarters, not one education thinker comes up. Prospective parents, staring at a $40,000-plus tuition and thumbing through the sumptuous catalog, with its 30 pages on “The Team and Extended Family”—dazzling re?sume?s, studio-quality headshots—won’t find much of an answer to one obvious question: What will my kid be learning?

For-profit schools are primarily designed to benefit their investors. The students’ well-being is secondary.

[Anonymous]

I still can't figure out how they got the space zoned for this before the neighborhood or ANC ever heard peep about it.

[Anonymous]

Whittle was behind Edison Schools, one of the first outfits that pitched private takeover of failing urban public schools. That has been a dismal failure with a few rare exceptions. He was fired by his first "for profit" international school and is now taking another bite at the apple. He's into hiring "brand name" administrators to impress parents. The very idea of selling investors on making money of the education of children makes me shudder.

[Anonymous]

Can it be challenged? Is there no public reporting period prior to approval?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can it be challenged? Is there no public reporting period prior to approval?

No and no.

[Anonymous]

Whittle was behind Channel 1 in the early 90s. Free TV as long as you watched the advertisements.

What a POS.

School will be gone in less than five years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whittle was behind Channel 1 in the early 90s. Free TV as long as you watched the advertisements.

What a POS.

School will be gone in less than five years.

Ambition acts as a blinder at times. Don’t take what you think you know for granted, folks. Watch the news. There’s a story there. Right in front of your nose

[Anonymous]

Private equity firms only want to make money. They are profit driven and not mission driven. Therefore, the whole business model will eventually collapse because schools are mission driven to educate students and prepare them for the future and not make money for investors. Any parents that waste money on this school are harming their children and feeding the PE firms and their investors.

[Anonymous]

Whittle took over a trade publication company shortly after graduating from the University of Tennessee. It bought Esquire Magazine and was successful in the trade mag. industry. Channel One was actually inspired, despite the advertising, and where Anderson Cooper got his start. Then Whittle tried to set up his own branded publishing empire and drove the company into the ground, though not before cashing out big time. Now he's an education wizard? What a joke. All sizzle no steak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private equity firms only want to make money. They are profit driven and not mission driven. Therefore, the whole business model will eventually collapse because schools are mission driven to educate students and prepare them for the future and not make money for investors. Any parents that waste money on this school are harming their children and feeding the PE firms and their investors.

I agree with you but you also need to add in the Chinese money, the Chinese desire for a "prestigious American education" and for the Chinese government to have their say how their children are educated and what they are exposed to. Will the school library and computers have access to The New York Times and The Washington Post? Neither of which you can access from within China?

I'm not saying you're wrong but I wonder how those other factors will impact investors.

[Anonymous]

How do investors in for-profit education make $$?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do investors in for-profit education make $$?

The same way any business makes money. Revenue (private tuition or public per-pupil funding) - Expenses (money spent on providing the education) = Profit.
It’s not impossible for them to provide a quality education, but there is constant pressure to skimp on E in order to maximize P.

[Anonymous]

Heard an ad for this school on Boston radio while I was on vacation. I guess they are marketing across the us.

[Anonymous]

I heard the Whittle School acquired the two best teachers from Sidwell Friends School and another from Maret. If they are willing to make the move --that is saying something something.