Investing In Ned Schneebly’s School Of The Future
Ned Schneebly may not be a real teacher but when he told the students that his class on rock ‘n roll would test their head and their mind and their brain too the Jack Black character was signaling what was to come in real world education and investment. The film is a foreshadowing moment of what schools are now needing to do to survive. That’s because today most schools will tell you they are failing to keep up with their changing mission to keep kids well in different ways - and ironically healthcare investors may be the Ned Schneeblys to rescue them.
For the first time ever, a majority of healthcare investors will spend a meaningful amount of time exploring ways to help schools respond to the growing call to be social service, wellness and mental health facilities. Talk about a pivot for investors – 5 years ago just 3% were spending time in this space and 15 years ago nearly 90% spent time exclusively on things like surgical practices, labs and durable medical equipment…Math and science remain on the school curriculum, but the budget dedicated to counseling, 1 on 1 depression triage, social support and physical fitness is ballooning. Most schools cut PE, art and music budgets dramatically over the last 30 years only to realize they need more Ned Schneeblys – pronounced “Shnablay” by the way. School districts unable to keep up are turning to funding from states, grants, waiver programs and, yes, the health insurance industry. 59% so far in our annual poll of 136 investors say they will look at businesses providing therapy and wellness and peer support to schools – some businesses are already well funded with exclusive insurance contracts others are scrambling for a strategy.
One school with 850 students pivoted from one nurse to contracting with a therapy and wellness company to handle the 70-100 daily encounters to help kids cope. 80% of that $370,000 contract is now shifting to be paid by a health insurer. In another case, a physical fitness group gets $1.2 M to help a set of school districts in Rhode Island. More than 80% of principals in both primary and secondary schools in our poll of 410 nationally want to reinvest in physical education as a means to address behavioral issues, reduce violence risk, increase test scores and, in their own way, promote mental health.
At one high school in San Diego students started using smartphones to scan bar codes on worksheets to gain access to a YouTube video during a tumbling exercise. This was gym class circa 2015, an example of educators looking for ways to implement common core standards into physical education to address bullying, behavioral issues, and student presenteeism. So maybe I'm wrong, but I think educators had it backwards: if it were me, physical education--the roots of it anyways--ought to be built into the common core.
You see when I grew up the only thing common about gym was the sheer amount of sweat we'd collect in 30 minutes dodging rubber balls or racing Mr. Hauk on those little scooters. The so-called school bully Lenny Dupee and school jock Donny Wilmot would team up to score the game winner in a bowling war. We'd leave gym class together - not as cliques but as comrades in competition, bonded from leg bruises and jammed fingers, sweaty hair and greasy mustaches. Everyone tried, everyone competed and we'd walk out of the locker room as winners and losers, satisfied for having had the chance to play and ready for class. I come from a long line of educators – my mom a nursery school music teacher not unlike fictional Ned Schneebly, my sister a special ed teacher, and my wife a teacher and principal who always sees the class as a chance to change one kid’s life. She says the role of the counselor has become the single most important person in the school. I think policymakers are starting to heed that call, and maybe investors will too. I’ve spent much of my adult life in schools coaching sports sometimes before the kids sit down for geometry and, I suppose a little like Schneebly himself, I too see the impact of that on their heads and their minds. And of course their brains too.