British School in the US

My sister sent me the link to a British school that opened in New York. Quote that caught my eye was ""The buzz on the school has been excellent so far, but again it's really difficult to judge a school until it's been open for about five years". This is the challenge of a school i.e., stay open despite years of doubt, low enrollment and no profits. There are other British schools in the US (e.g., British School of Chicago. Definitely have the snob factor going, with tuitions of $26K per year!

Back from India

Just came back from a 3-week vacation to Trivandrum (Kerala). Seems like there's either a medical college, engineering college, hospital or school around every corner! The last bit is what's of interest to the zero people reading this blog ... the demand for better schooling in India has increased due to the surging economy. In Trivandrum, the talk of the town was the "Trivandrum International School". Very impressive ... swimming pools, tennis courts and even plans for horse riding. Some British dude is principal, and it's the school for the rich. But, through my wife's friend got the inside scoop - no discipline, spoiled kids with little brains and everything a kid can wish for all ready available. Not going to last long, one would think.

But, got my mind thinking ... global economy will mean more folks going back and forth, and another reason for folks to enroll their kids at an Indian school in the US would be to make it easier to actually go back and forth.

One more scattered thought: what seems to be lacking in most schools in the US and at this Trivandrum International School is *respect* for people.

No response from ICSE council ...

Not surprising, but will try to contact directly when we go to India in June. One concern is that the US school year runs August to June, whereas the Indian school year is June to March. However, from the Council of Indian School Certificate's website, found a school in Singapore that offers classes year-round. The DPS International School in Singapore has a useful website, and will try and contact the principal there as well.

Of course, the million dollar question is whehter this is a million dollar opportunity ... can a school be profitable? The Charter schools and others in the US tend to make the argument that it is possible, but it seems like it will take 10 years before a school really becomes mature.

Finances/Business Model

Some dated (2004) info from the Catholic school my son goes to ...

http://scbcrusaders.org/scb_board_1.htm

Cost per child: $1529/year
Total School Budget: $950,000 (total students: 208)
Employee Insurance: $108,935 (included in budget?)

I'll get in touch with the Finance person to get more accurate numbers and a better understanding of the costs. Unfortunately there are many Catholic schools that are closing down, so should be able to rent space rather than try to build, etc.

State Regulations?

Was thinking about how the Indian system of June-March could apply to the US system of Sept-June. There's an ICSE school in Singapore that has school year-round broken into 2 semesters. Maybe this could work ... found this through Yahoo search (which I find more accurate than Google now-a-days): http://www.ed.gov/pubs/RegPrivSchl/illinois.html. Surprisingly, seems to be fewer restrictions to private schools than I expected.

Regarding length of school year, "The school year calendar for registered and recognized nonpublic schools must provide a minimum of 176 days of no less than five hours of instruction, or a yearly total of 880 hours of instruction.". Does this mean the year-round school year would be legal?

Crazy Idea, but ...

Why not have an Indian school in the US? The number of upper and middle class families of Indian origins are on the increase. The ICSE syllabus is comparable to any US-based syllabus, and has the added advantage of teaching Indian history and languages.

Many questions to be answered, including:

* What does it take to get ICSE accreditation? Found the following link: http://www.cisce.org
* What does it take to start a private school in the US? Found the following link: http://privateschool.about.com/cs/startingaschool/ht/startaschool.htm
* Can a private school be profitable??

Need to find a preliminary Advisory Board and put together a business plan ...