A wave of American billionaires building their own brand new private schools

In an era where ordinary parents make a thousand efforts to enroll their children in popular schools, billionaires in America are engaged in a fascinating race to build brand new private schools of their own.

This latest trend is currently emerging, centered in the state of Florida, USA. Through this, giant businessmen and company heads in the country are building ultra-luxurious schools with modern facilities to meet the educational needs of their own children and children from extremely wealthy families like theirs.

Jeff Greene, a prominent real estate businessman who migrated from California to Palm Beach, Florida, is a perfect example of this. Noticing the lack of suitable private schools for children from wealthy families in the area, he started his own school called 'The Greene School,' providing education from preschool to grade 12. It is more like a modern technological camp than a regular school. Two teachers are assigned per classroom, and it features 3-D printing facilities, flight simulator training, and projects where children design real airplanes themselves. Additionally, the school offers tennis and sailing facilities.

This situation has arisen with the recent large-scale migration of American billionaires and investors to the state of Florida. Although money is not an issue for them, the lack of sufficient space in top-tier schools that guide their children to enter world-renowned 'Ivy League' universities in the future became a major crisis. Instead of languishing on long waiting lists, they decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build their own schools. Billionaires like Stephen Ross and Adam Neumann are already participating in this school-building race. The annual tuition fee at Jeff Greene's school alone is about $50,000 (approximately one and a half crore Sri Lankan rupees), while the fee at the school founded by entrepreneur John Marshall is $30,000.

However, these school projects by billionaires are facing strong opposition from local authorities and the general public. A major reason for this is their action to demolish certain historical buildings or even churches for new school constructions. For example, businessman Adam Neumann faced severe public anger when he demolished an old church in the Miami area to build his school. Due to this, issues with obtaining permits have arisen, forcing many projects to operate in temporary buildings.

This clearly reflects how education, in the face of unlimited financial power, is becoming just another luxurious private enterprise, and it is a perfect harbinger that the day when social class disparity will be determined by school walls themselves is not far off.

(Based on the Wall Street Journal)