Education

Tennis champion Andre Agassi founded the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in 2001 to serve children in the poorest neighborhood of Las Vegas. The school operates as a charter—independent of state bureaucracy. In 2011, Agassi partnered with Bobby Turner to create the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund, which builds and leases school facilities to charter operators. The fund has deployed $1B+ across 90+ schools. While serving underserved communities, this is fundamentally impact investing: returns (10-12%) flow to investors, not communities. Agassi himself calls it 'business philanthropy.' It demonstrates the spectrum between pure PSC and commercial impact investing.

• Charter school in poorest Las Vegas neighborhood
• Turner-Agassi Fund: $1B+ real estate investment
• 90+ schools across USA

Escuela Nueva began in rural Colombia as a solution for communities too small to support traditional schools. The model—flexible, multigrade, community-governed—has now reached 5 million students across 20 countries. The regenerative element: teachers train other teachers, communities build their own schools, and graduates return to teach. It's human capital RCA in action.

• Multigrade, flexible scheduling
• Community-governed schools
• Teacher-training-teachers model

Finland's education system consistently ranks among the world's best despite spending less than many OECD countries. The secret is structural: education is fully decoupled from market pressures (no tuition, no standardised test pressure) and aligned via radical trust in teachers (most autonomy in curriculum, masters degrees required). The system regenerates human capital by treating teaching as a prestigious profession that attracts top graduates.

• No tuition at any level
• Teachers have masters degrees, high autonomy
• Minimal standardised testing

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) aimed to transform education in developing countries by providing $100 laptops to children. Despite $2B+ invested and 3M laptops distributed, results were disappointing. Studies showed no improvement in test scores. The problem: OLPC assumed technology alone would transform learning, ignoring teacher training, curriculum integration, maintenance, and local context. Laptops broke, gathered dust, or were sold. OLPC is the canonical example of tech solutionism—solving the wrong problem with the wrong tool.

• $2B+ invested globally
• 3M laptops distributed
• No improvement in test scores

SkillsFuture is Singapore's national movement for lifelong learning. Every Singaporean aged 25+ receives S$500 in credits (topped up periodically) to invest in approved courses and certifications. The system is funded by government endowment, creating a perpetual source for human capital development. Unlike one-time training grants, credits regenerate—creating ongoing capability building across generations. It's PSC applied to skills: the corpus persists, the benefits flow perpetually.

• S$500 credits per citizen (recurring)
• Government-funded endowment
• 7,000+ approved courses