Private firm finds profits in special education
Monday, 10 September 2007
NASHVILLE, Tenn, Sept 9 (AP): Mark Claypool left social work jaded by how special education students were shuffled around and ignored in public schools. He had one radical idea: The best way to teach special education students would be to turn a profit while doing it.
"It would have been more traditional to do this in a not-for-profit fashion," Claypool said. "But the CEO for a not-for-profit walks around with his hand out all day long to keep the doors open and the lights turned on. I didn't want to do that."
Claypool founded Educational Services of America in Nashville in 1999 as one of the few companies even attempting to make money by running special education private schools.
With programmes in 16 states, ESA owns and operates more than 120 private and charter schools. It hires the teachers and sets up the curriculum for about 7,800 students with learning, developmental or behavioural problems.
Critics from within public education have said it's wrong and ineffective to turn a profit off special education students, but the company generated $75 million in revenue this year, and Claypool expects revenue to grow to $90 million next year. The privately owned company would not disclose profits.
Only about two per cent of all special education students - about 100,000 --- are taught in private schools set up exclusively for special education, according to recent data from the US Department of Education.
And there are only about 125 private special education programmes that are trying to make a profit, said Sherry L Kolbe, executive director of the National Association of Private Special Education Centres.
Claypool said none among that small group can match what ESA is doing: Providing nationwide service in alternative education, special education and college prep.
ESA schools offer instruction for students with many kinds of disabilities, from mental retardation to high-functioning autism. One of its rapidly growing programmes helps high school special education graduates who want college degrees.
"The idea was that there are a lot of young adults with learning disabilities, and the expectation wasn't there that they were going to go to college," Claypool said. "And it should have been, because they're often quite bright."
The college living experience, which soon will have six campuses nationwide, allows students to live in their own apartments while teaching them how to shop for groceries, eat at restaurants and dress appropriately.
ESA got its biggest financial boost in 2004, when New York-based private equity firm Trimaran Capital Partners invested in ESA and became a majority partner. (Financial terms were not disclosed.) ESA's other funding comes from many sources, both traditional and controversial.
"It would have been more traditional to do this in a not-for-profit fashion," Claypool said. "But the CEO for a not-for-profit walks around with his hand out all day long to keep the doors open and the lights turned on. I didn't want to do that."
Claypool founded Educational Services of America in Nashville in 1999 as one of the few companies even attempting to make money by running special education private schools.
With programmes in 16 states, ESA owns and operates more than 120 private and charter schools. It hires the teachers and sets up the curriculum for about 7,800 students with learning, developmental or behavioural problems.
Critics from within public education have said it's wrong and ineffective to turn a profit off special education students, but the company generated $75 million in revenue this year, and Claypool expects revenue to grow to $90 million next year. The privately owned company would not disclose profits.
Only about two per cent of all special education students - about 100,000 --- are taught in private schools set up exclusively for special education, according to recent data from the US Department of Education.
And there are only about 125 private special education programmes that are trying to make a profit, said Sherry L Kolbe, executive director of the National Association of Private Special Education Centres.
Claypool said none among that small group can match what ESA is doing: Providing nationwide service in alternative education, special education and college prep.
ESA schools offer instruction for students with many kinds of disabilities, from mental retardation to high-functioning autism. One of its rapidly growing programmes helps high school special education graduates who want college degrees.
"The idea was that there are a lot of young adults with learning disabilities, and the expectation wasn't there that they were going to go to college," Claypool said. "And it should have been, because they're often quite bright."
The college living experience, which soon will have six campuses nationwide, allows students to live in their own apartments while teaching them how to shop for groceries, eat at restaurants and dress appropriately.
ESA got its biggest financial boost in 2004, when New York-based private equity firm Trimaran Capital Partners invested in ESA and became a majority partner. (Financial terms were not disclosed.) ESA's other funding comes from many sources, both traditional and controversial.