What is education? Club access

I recently met up with a former colleague, Jo, who has been teaching internationally for several years. Jo had several tales to tell, but one in particular caught my ear. Her school was small and family-owned, solid and not stellar but doing pretty well in its niche. The parents-founders passed on, and the children-no-educators sold it to a large international venture-capital-backed corporation. Now, I am no Gordon Gekko, but I would still venture to define venture-capitalism as "we want a significant return quickly". How does that appear in an educationally-focussed mission statement, and in daily operations?

TLDR - it doesn't.

The new owners plastered their mission statement everywhere, and reportedly it was not hugely different from that which existed previously. They invested in new stuff, specially outdoor play equipment and PK - G2 classroom furniture and decorations. The school now looked bright, cheerful, sunny and fun. All the things which would appeal to parents of younger children, particularly young parents with their first children who do not have much experience in choosing schools.

Jo told me that in that country and city, children enter a school in PK or K and leave at the end of G12. Under normal circumstances, for cultural reasons, and a lack of availability elsewhere, a school can assume with not far off 100% accuracy that once they have a child they will keep that child.

The new owners increased fees significantly, and in this place, conspicuous consumption rules. Jo suspects many people live on credit and credit cards, but they still have imported European cars, wear American and Asian clothing and go on American and European vacations.

The higher fees meant the school was now available only to a smaller and more visibly-defined group. The school's owner now advertised to that group and sponsored events at that group's preferred malls, social clubs and sports clubs. Jo noticed that in less than three years, the parent group changed and the difference between ECE parents and HS parents could be immediately seen at the school gate.

Notably, the program did not change. Teacher salaries did not change. Middle and high school facilities did not change, and coincidentally did not appear on prospective parent tours. New books were not bought. And so on.

What the new owners, this international VC-backed for-profit corporation, know is that there is a group of people who will spend money to join a group based in and identified as being able to spend that money. 

And educationally? This country has a single national examination at the end of G12 which is used for college applications, and inevitably to rank students and thus schools. However, what this examination really ranks is parents' ability to pay for private tutors and cram schools. Jo's new corporate overlords know this, and they know they do not have to provide much educationally because their parents are going to pay for outside services anyway, partly of course to show that they can,

As a business model, this is great. As an educational driver, not so much.  

**Please leave comments and questions below.**