We have decided, given that a community, or
I absolutely only want to high light you to
Ruben Ogbonna:
Yeah. .. I don’t know who played a part in this decision. We pay for post-secondary education in this country. That’s not a decision that the Marcy Lab School gets to make. It would be great to live in a society where we invest in the postsecondary education of all of our citizens. That is not where we are right now. And so as a startup that aspires to be a college or a challenge at a college, whether or not we pay i not question that’s up to us, it’s a question that’s up to our policy makers.
I absolutely would like to high light you to definitely
Ruben Ogbonna:
And so in short, at one point in online loans Alabama the future, we likely will charge a tuition, but it’s not the priority in this moment. Because if we can focus on doing a couple things really, really well right now, we’re going to be able to make the decision about what the sticker price of the Marcy Lab School is, we’ll be able to make that decision from a position of power. One, we have to focus on the outcomes right now, we have to focus on really doing a good service to our employer partners, and, three, we have to focus on determining what is core to the program model, and what can be left alone. If we can do that, and by the time we…
I truly only want to stress one
Ruben Ogbonna:
Whenever that time comes around, we decide to put a sticker price on the , we’ll be doing so after we already have a consistent growing reliable pipeline of employer partner contributions, we’ll be doing so after we have the right set of government interventions in place that also offset the cost of our program. We’re already doing it from a position of power, in that our program is 25% of the length of a traditional college degree. And so we can do so in a way that favors our students first.
I really would like to stress you to
Ruben Ogbonna:
The flexible repayment movement, the income share agreement movement, certainly, of course, began with like great intentions. But at the end of the day, the sticker price is the sticker price. We can get as creative as we want about how we repay, when we repay, but a loan is a loan, and if it has to be repaid, the price matters. I think one of the downsides of the emphasis that has been placed on the repayment model is that we’ve lost track of the thing that really, really matters, and that is the price of the program, that students are ultimately on the hook for.
Todd Zipper:
Yeah. You’re really challenging all aspects of the model, and willing to rip it up, keep what’s working, what’s not working. I just absolutely love what you’re doing here. One of the things that really is hitting home for me is… you keep coming back to it, is your employer partners, whether they’re funding some of the education or they have the job waiting for these students at the end is really powerful. I call it employer down or right to left education, that’s increasing movement. I think you’ve just defaulted to that, which I think is part of the idea of driving these incredible outcomes. You know your costs are going to be better than the typical model, eventually, and I think… Eventually, you’ll figure out the funding model at scale, as long as the outcomes are there for your stakeholders, which… your learners and your employers.
Todd Zipper:
A few other questions for you around the model. It seems like you’re doing a lot of stuff. Going back to that career and the employer, I’ve read some things that you help them with their resume or their LinkedIn networking, not just LinkedIn profile, but their networking. You’ve talked about out a mentor, and assigning them someone there. Can you unpack some of that, as well? Because I think that brings to life that it’s not just learning a course in algorithms, but you’re actually helping people to build a career at the same time.