The Business of Education

"Education is a $600 billion enterprise nationwide. It is larger than the entire United States defense budget, second only to health care, with $30 billion spent on preschools alone." — The New York Times

Bush Touts Education Reform
The president asked again for congressional support for his $5 billion, five-year program to improve reading instruction.
``The goal is to improve our public schools,'' he said. ``We want them to succeed. And when they are willing to change we'll give them the tools to do so.''
— The Associated Press, January 29, 2001

Bush Vows to End Illiteracy in U.S. Children
RESTON, Va.--Calling childhood illiteracy a "national emergency," Texas Gov. George W. Bush unveiled a five-year, $5-billion proposal Tuesday to ensure that all American children can read by the end of third grade. . .
- March 29, 2000 - Los Angeles Times

The Virtual Classroom Vs. The Real One
Web education has not yet met its greatest challenge: how to create online courses as conducive to learning as classrooms.

INVESTORS ARE POURING MILLIONS, soon to be billions, into the online education market. Conservative figures from analysts at Thomas Weisel Partners, a merchant bank in San Francisco, estimate a $10 billion virtual higher-ed market by 2003 and an $11 billion corporate-learning market by the same year. That's $21 billion from almost nothing and it's the kind of market that makes venturesome investors drool. John Chambers, the highly esteemed CEO of Cisco Systems, calls online education the "killer app" of the Internet.

"The McLaughlin Education Industry Index which tracks 25 publicly traded education companies found that these companies substantially outperformed the Dow and Russell 2000 index of small companies."
— The New York Times

"Education is the greatest anti-poverty program, and the most powerful anti-discrimination strategy we could ever have."
— Associated Press

"These are our deficits now, my concerns are schools, preschools, and after school care. We need steps that bow to the reality of two-income families and long hours apart."
— President George W. Bush

"Polls show that a majority of Americans think that getting kids off to the right start should be our No. 1 priority."
— Democrat Bill Bradley

"The care deficit for our little ones, we need 2.2 million teachers, while making them pass tough tests, and our preschool programs have to be extended for every child, in every community in America."
— Former Vice President Al Gore