HN user
I feel like the only way entrepreneurs can do good is to provide services for students and not for teachers. Stuff like khanacademy.com and teamtreehouse.com
Sell to the learner not to the teacher.
Give it time. With the direction healthcare costs are going it's just a matter of time before the hate enters the profession. Soon people will see doctors, nurses, and administrators for what they really are: rent-seekers gouging taxpayers for enormous amounts of money by erecting barriers to entry, keeping accountability to a minimum, and charging endless procedures to the bottomless pits that are medicare and medicaid.
I'd rather be "booted" than handed a $2000 cell phone bill.
I've had a lot of success with the tutorials at thenewboston.com The instructor there explains everything in a very ELI5 (explain like im 5) manner and tone and it works very well for beginners like me.
The only reason the idea of dropping out is getting so much traction is because of the debt that's now required to get a degree. I haven't seen anyone defending college reconcile this fact.
The point is that a degree is now extremely expensive and is getting more so all the time. Id like to make the point that holding all that debt is a lot scarier than the successful people with decent jobs trying to persuade us to start or stay in school think it is.
It seems that they are serving the wrong customers. Most edu startups try to sell to parents, teachers, or administrators. Sell directly to the student. Thats one reason I think Khan Academy is having such success.
What I would like a startup to offer me is this: Buy my product/service, invest your time and energy as well as you can learning the subject, and in return we will make you as employable as humanly possible.
Maybe work backwards from that. Just my 2 cents.
Don't forget that the for-profit colleges get 99% of their income from government financial aid. They don't have to serve their customers well; they just have to do the minimum amount of work to get the financial aid money.
There is only so high in quality a product can get. How much better is a $1,000,000 car vs a $1,000 car? They both get you from A to B. Sure one might be a little faster but in terms of function they both perform at roughly the same base. One is for smart consumers and one is for rich people to show off.
Keeping the government monopoly in place only serves the interests of the employees and unions of the public schools and no one else. Certainly not the students.
"Thinking that the market is a solution to everything is a popular fallacy nowadays."
Yeah because it works.
Why would it be in the interest of private schools to hoard their products from me? I only make $18000 (about half the median wage) and food companies don't price me out of the market. Car companies don't either. Given that nearly every human being is in demand of an affordable education it makes no sense for companies to not accept low income students. The only reason private schools are expensive now is because the government monopoly makes it imposible for them to compete on the low income section of the market.