Move over, Dalton

摘要

The first time he tried to create the "next generation of schools", back in the early 1990s, Chris Whittle's focus was on improving the education of the poorest pupils in America's worst-performing public schools. Although in doing so the perennially bow-tied entrepreneur from Tennessee helped pioneer the charter-school movement, his Edison Project ultimately failed to thrive as a business. Now, with Benno Schmidt and Alan Greenberg, he is trying to reinvent education for bright, rich kids. On September 10th "Avenues: The World School", the first of a planned global network, will welcome 700 pupils into a lavishly converted warehouse next to Manhattan's popular High Line park. Their parents will typically pay just under $40,000 a year (in line with New York's established top-tier private schools), having been promised cutting-edge technology and everything else to match.