Chapter 2: The Role of For-Profit Firms in the Educational Ecosystem

Education is a long-term investment for governments and societies. If each student who graduated with a bachelor’s degree were viewed as a separate research and development (R&D) project, the return on investment horizon would be more than 17 years. According to Yale professor Richard Foster, this is longer than the average lifespan of companies listed in the S&P 500 index (Gittleson, 2012). Students who earn a high school diploma spend 13 years in development. Students who have finished 8th grade— middle school—spend 9 years in development. Conversely, many commercial technology R&D projects that are estimated to take more than nine weeks are shelved. For each student, society makes very significant investments in time and money.