Disrupting the Education Monopoly: A Conversation with Reed Hastings
ARTICLE
Joanne Jacobs
Education Next Volume 15, Number 1, ISSN 1539-9664
Abstract
This article features an interview with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings. In this interview, Hastings relates that he told the "Wall Street Journal" in 2008 that he started looking at education--trying to figure out why our education is lagging when our technology is increasing at great rates and there's great innovation in so many other areas such as health care, biotech, information technology, moviemaking. Why not education?" Hastings said that his philosophy is rather than giving a little bit here and there, to focus on one thing and try to do it really well." His thing, he decided, would be improving K-12 education. After entering an eye=opening master's program at Stanford's school of education in 1997, Hastings read widely, getting a "broader context" for understanding education issues. "It further convinced him that expanding charter schools would offer a long-term solution." Although he left without completing a degree, Hastings had begun working on a new company, Netflix, and getting into education politics. Hastings has focused on growing high-quality charter schools and developing technology that could transform education. In 1998, Hastings teamed with charter school advocate, Don Shalvey to write a statewide ballot initiative to lift California's charter cap and make it easier to start a charter school. Hastings helped Shalvey start Aspire Public Schools, which became a network of 37 charter schools in California and Tennessee. Hastings shares a belief that "The school board model works reasonably well in suburban districts." In cities, however, where it takes thousands of dollars to run, school board seats attract the politically ambitious. "They use the school board as a stepping-stone to run for higher office." He foresees "a huge fight that won't lead to better outcomes for students." School districts are monopolies, he says. Protections for teachers are a "natural outcome of a local monopoly." What is needed is a way to disrupt the monopoly.
Citation
Jacobs, J. (2015). Disrupting the Education Monopoly: A Conversation with Reed Hastings. Education Next, 15(1), 44-47. Retrieved August 14, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/156887/.
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