Yesterday NPR reported that the State of Massachusetts has already spent 90% of the federal stimulus money that was earmarked for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 fiscal school years. The problem? Because of the state’s current deficit, this money is actually being spent over the two year period of 2009 and 2010. You can see where that’s headed, right?
This gets me thinking: why is k-12 built on a non-profit model?
Coincidentally, I judged a high school business plan competition yesterday. For the full context of this idea, read that essay here. Here’s the bottom line:
My fifteen year old son wants a job and could contribute ten hours per week on average. There are two hundred students in each grade at his high school. That’s eight hundred potential employees. If every student is available for ten hours per week, that’s:
- 200 students
- x 10 hours per week
- =2,000 total work hours per week
- x 52 weeks per year
- =104,000 available labor hours per year
My takeaway: the best way for schools to serve their constituents is to be profitable. There is a vastly untapped and willing student labor pool here, so schools should be self-serving and become responsible for their own economic development instead of waiting for local, state and federal funding.
How can schools can capitalize on contributed labor and generate income? The answer: start businesses! Teach business planning but take it to the next level; launch viable local companies that are student-run (in collaboration with mentorship from sponsor organizations).
Fund the student start-ups by selling stock! We hear a lot about “investing” in education, but where’s the real return on investment in that? Instead of ‘fund raising’ and selling me $40 worth of candles that I don’t really want anyway, how about the students ask me to invest $50 in the stock of a school-based co-op? If it’s profitable I’ll get a dividend. And if the business fails, at least my kids are earning valuable real-world experience.
There are 6,000 people in my town. At $50 per person we’d be looking at $300,000 in start-up capital. That’s not too shabby for a business like a sub-shop or ice-cream parlor that would launch with immediate community buy-in and goodwill. But how about doing something really audacious, like raising $1,000,000 ($166 per person) to launch a Dunkin-Donuts franchise? That’s something the town could use, and it’s a business with high likelihood of success.
When it succeeds, repeat. Then integrate the business curriculum for junior varsity and middle school students. It’s never to early to start!
AfriGadget
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