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346 points obscurette | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.287s | source
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ak_111 ◴[] No.42116555[source]
Could it be that part of the failure is that EdTech companies are focused on replacing the pedagogical aspect of schools, but the main utility of schools for parents is not pedagogy - it is a daycare centre for kids while parents go on about their careers?
replies(4): >>42116636 #>>42116652 #>>42116829 #>>42120389 #
1. sirspacey ◴[] No.42120389[source]
No. A legion of edtech companies have been born and died who solve the underlying pedagogical issues but die.

Some of the reasons they die are:

- students don’t control the budget for their spending, so their voice/progress has almost no impact on budgets

- parents in the US spend a tiny fraction of their deposable income on education (and also have almost no say in budgets)

- teachers have almost no say in budgets. In public schools, it’s none. In others, it’s performative if at all most of the time.

- administrators get promoted by doing a very specific set of small things, none of which include improving outcomes through addressing pedagogical innovation

This all adds up to: you can create an edtech startup that radically improves student outcomes and still run out of cash