Incentivizing Innovation in Education; or A Role For For Profits in Education

Rethink Education's Tom Segal responds to critics of edtech's 'profit motive'


Some bloggers are quick to point to the evils of the “profit motive” and the dangers of politics pushing technology for technology’s sake; but those same bloggers are often quick to praise new apps that they find particularly creative and helpful. I say, you can’t have one without the other. You can’t have high-quality digital tools without the profit motive (heck, you certainly can’t have that computer without the profit motive, and I imagine even the most ardent haters of private sector in the classroom would agree that a computer is a useful educational tool).   Instead, what you need is the profit motive coupled with a truly transparent market filled with a multitude of options. Does this market exist yet in today’s educational landscape? Nope. But the way to get there is to promote the symbiotic relationship of schools and entrepreneurs, not to detract from it.

To be sure, there are tricky issues to navigate in making this kind of public-private partnership work. But these are the real stakes now. Do we move forward and find sensible ways to capture the public benefits that private-sector innovation has brought to every other field? Or do we stay trapped in old ways of doing things that aren't meeting America's needs? When even a famouslyegalitarian society like Sweden is embracing private sector innovation to help improve schooling, our own path should be clear.


If Bill and Melinda have anointed the chosen one (ahem, Sal Khan) and distributed capital accordingly, the infusion of cash and attention may help in the short-term, but it is not a way to assure that the best products get to market—it is only a way of making sure that a few products designated by a few philanthropies will have an edge. I don’t mean to pick on Khan Academy, because I think Sal has brought phenomenal exposure to the idea of blended learning, but others have begun questioning the efficacy behind the product.


The Case for the Private Sector in School Reform


The good news is that the Common Core Standards, now adopted in 46 states, are creating incentives for innovation at the heart of the system. At last there's a common definition of what "good" looks like for students and teachers, at least in core subjects like math and English. This helps explain why venture capital is now flowing in record sums to startups seeking to serve K-12 schools—and why larger firms (like the one I lead) are for the first time assembling world class teams of educators, technologists, and designers to tackle these challenges.