Harbus

Issue date: 2/11/08 Section: News

Stacey Childress

Harvard Business School alumni are working in all aspects of many industries. If you think about the technology sector, HBS graduates are venture capitalists and investment bankers who provide capital to companies at various stages of growth, they are in top management jobs at mature companies such as Microsoft as well as newer businesses such as E-bay and Google, and they are partners in all of the top-tier consulting firms that CEOs rely on for strategic advice. The skills, knowledge, and network that HBS alumni bring to the industry helps drive innovation and performance.

Increasingly, a similar dynamic is at work in the U.S. public education system. The philanthropic foundations that provide risk capital for innovation, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New Schools Venture Fund, and the Broad Foundation all have HBS graduates in senior positions. Many of the nation's largest urban public schools such as New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, have hired MBAs to overhaul important operational and academic functions. The most promising entrepreneurial education ventures such as the KIPP Academies, Green Dot Public Schools, Teach For America, and New Leaders for New Schools have founders or senior team members who are MBAs. And, not surprisingly, the consulting firms advising all of these entities are full of our graduates.

What is it about U.S. public education that is increasingly attracting MBAs? Our students and alumni like solving hard problems, and many of them want to invest themselves in something that matters beyond today. Working in education can fill both of these needs.

Much of the talk about the global competitiveness of the United States focuses on the country's ability to innovate and create high-wage jobs for American workers, even as lower-wage jobs migrate to other countries. For this to be positive news for the majority of Americans, you must assume the next generation will be well prepared for these higher-wage tasks. Every three years, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) administers the Program for International Assessment (PISA) to 15 year-olds in its 30 member countries. In 2006, American students ranked 25th out of 30 OECD countries on the mathematics assessment, 21st in science, and 18th in reading. Needless to say, the fact that the rising U.S. workforce is in the bottom quartile in mathematics and bottom third in science is troubling in terms of a national competitiveness strategy that emphasizes highly-skilled jobs in an information- and innovation-based economy.

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