Being an eduEntreneur does not always pay off. Chris Whittle founded the Edison Project, which was supposed to be for profit, but after much turmoil, its stock price plummeted, and he moved on. (Read Samuel Abrams’ fascinating history of the Edison Project in Education and the Commercial Mindset).
Most recently, Whittle founded Avenues, which was planned to be a global chain of boutique for-profit, private schools. Tuition at the state-of-the-art Avenues in NYC is $59,800. It’s opening was announced Ina full-page ad in the New York Times.
A few years ago, Whittle and Avenues parted company. In 2014, Whittle listed his 11-acre home in the jet-set Hamptons for $140 million, but it didn’t sell.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Whittle’s property in the Hamptons was purchased by the Avenues Global Holdings for $700,000 and will be sold to pay off the $6 million debt that Whtitle owes the school.
In an auction that took place Tuesday morning, Avenues was awarded right and title to the property, subject to other liens, for a credit bid of just $700,000, the spokeswoman said. The auction was a forced sale to satisfy more than $6 million in debts owed to Avenues by Mr. Whittle. Avenues expects to officially take title to the property next week and will make plans for the property soon after, the spokeswoman said.
“We hope that this facilitates the recovery of the more than $6 million that remains owed and unpaid to Avenues,” the spokeswoman said.
The property had been on the market most recently for $95 million, down from the $140 million Mr. Whittle first listed it for in 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Reached by phone, Mr. Whittle said he has “had better days.” He said he had taken out a very large mortgage on the property in order to fund his latest venture, Whittle School & Studios, another for-profit school network, but the Covid-19 crisis derailed his plans.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Edison came to my school district, took taxpayers’ money, failed, and disappeared, leaving behind a demoralized school community. Losing a home in Hamptons, these days, is not a world-class tragedy. I assume Mr. Whittle has somewhere else to live.
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and more districts to fleece: it is interesting that these so called “experts” never seem to lose the power of selling that “expertise” to the next patsy
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Seems like Whittle has lost his mojo, but you never know with snake-oil salesmen like him.
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He might have lost his estate (one of them), but I’d bet he still has his mojo (at least one of them)
These people have mo mojos than most people have old phones.
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well said
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Whittle probably also has millions squirreled away in offshore numbered accounts … just in case. His rainy day fund so he will not end up homeless and totally broke.
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Homeless?
Not unless one defines homeless as “having less that three houses worth at least a million apiece”.
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The feds and states continue to ignore “high flying edupreneurs” that crash and burn like Mr. Whittle. These people are amateurs should not be getting tax dollars to undermine public education. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes, not keep making them by squandering tax dollars on privatization.
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It depends on who you mean by “we”.
We — you and I and the rest of the general public — don’t make and enforce (or not enforce) the laws that govern this sort of stuff.
“we” (the public) learned long ago, but “we” simply do not matter.
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“For-Profit Schools”
Junk degrees
And public debts
About as sleaz
Zee as it gets
Phoenix flies
Then turns to ash
But never dies
In hunt for cash
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I looked at the Avenues website and it looks like a beautiful school with state of the art everything.
On one of the pages there is a video with someone explaining how schools have worked the same way for 100 years – preparing children for factory jobs. The video shows old photos from the early 1900’s of large classes of children sitting in rows. It was as if that is still what public school looks like.
The pictures on the website of engaged children could have easily been taken in many public school districts around the country. The only difference I could see from districts I am familiar with…..was the larger (ginormous) rooms and resources….. and seemingly very small class sizes. $60,000 per student vs. $10,000 per student will have that impact – coupled with lack of needing to be held “accountable” to CCSS and all that goes with it.
Public school students engage in the same types of activities they showed.
While the school looks amazing… that video is misleading in it’s depiction of public schools.
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“In an auction that took place Tuesday morning, Avenues was awarded right and title to the property, subject to other liens, for a credit bid of just $700,000”
On its face, there would seem to be something “amiss” in a property listed for on the order of $100 million being auctioned off for a mere $700,000
I bet you can’t even get a tool shed in the Hamptons for such a bargain price.
Maybe there is a journalist who would like to look into this matter.
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We are not talking about a factor of 10 or even 100, but 143.
Did no one bid more than $700,000?
Call me skeptical.
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This is quite strange. Way, way, under the value.
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I’d say that $140 million and even $95 million is probably overpriced, but it’s probably easily worth $20 million and given that it is currently a seller’s market , Avenues Global Holdings is going to easily and quicky make up their claim against Whittle ($7 million) and probably make a profit of double , triple or more on top of that.
The only thing I can think of is that for some reason they were the only ones allowed to bid that much (,or at all?) perhaps perfectly legally. Maybe creditors could not bid more than they had lost?
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Assuming only creditors who had lost money could bid.
Who knows. But it does seem weird.
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Since Whittle owed Avenues $6 million, they might have had the first right and also the exclusive right to bid on the property, since they were a major creditor. They will turn around and flip that property to settle all Whittle’s debt to them, with, as everybody above says, a lot left over to fund their programs, expansion, etc. Glenn in Brooklyn, NY.
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You might be right.
But that would be a very odd “auction” in which only one bidder was allowed.
Auctioneer: lets start the bidding at $1. Do I hear $1 for this lovely mansion?
Avenues bidder raises hand
Auctioneer: I have a bid of $1, do I hear $2
Avenues bidder raises hand
Auctioneer: I have a bid of $2, do I hear $3
Avenues bidder raises hand
….
…
(Two weeks later)
Auctioneer: Do I hear $699,999?
Avenues bidder raises hand
Auctioneer: I have a bid of $699,999 do I hear $700,000?
Avenues bidder raises hand
Auctioneer: I have a bid of $700,000 do I hear $700,001
Going once , going twice, SOLD for $700,000
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Does this estate (11 acres with 1,100 ft of beachfront property, with a 10,000 square foot main house) look like something on which the highest bid would be only $700k?
https://www.27east.com/real-estate-news/on-georgica-pond-whittle-estate-lists-at-140-million-1412766/
Seriously?
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Sounds like Whittle is in a downward debt cycle. He speculated that charter schools would make him more and more money forever, the bottom fell out, and now he is compelled to accept huge losses because he owes millions. Here’s the thing, he over-speculated the values of his charter school and real estate investments, over-invested, paid too much, and so now he doesn’t get to speculate any more. Banks and bookies don’t give people extra chances to recover their losses by waiting for buyers. He has to give some money now. Take heed, charter school investment gamblers.
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gotta be some heavy behind-the-scenes arm-twisting behind that sole bid. Avenues gets to write it off as a loss, sorry taxpayers.
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Definitely worth investigating, even if just to highlight how bizarre the laws governing this stuff are.
It doesn’t seem right that a creditor should be able to get back MORE money than than they lost at the expense of the person who owed the money.
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And possibly the expense of the tax payers.
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Ah, the lifestyles of the rich and shameless.
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That is really weird about the bargain price — what kind of con job would it be? A con job run by Whittle, ever the shameless con man? His big push in the ‘80s and ‘90s was to find scammy, media-hyped ways to funnel public education money into his own pocket, first with his commercial Channel One in-school TV station and then with the hyped-to-the-skies Edison Schools. Avenues was a new direction, purely running a business with the filthy rich as clients.
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Read the history: Whittle had one idea in mind with “Edison”: make loads of money from public taxes. He “sold” everyone, from Republicans to Neoliberals–all completely ignorant of the success of public schools–of which currently 90 percent of US students attends. The charter movement–aided by Whittle and egged on by NCLB has almost bankrupted hundreds of public school districts; and now ALEC writes legislative language for all state legislatures encouraging them to add more charters. But, as the data show, charters are absolutely the genuine “failing factories” that charter advocates have accused public schools of being. Public schools–not public charters– are still the best at meeting our children’s and adolescents’ needs! See D. F. Brown (2012) and D. Berliner (2021).
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What a beautiful home. Wow.
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Education Companies have this way of failing spectacularly–especially the depersonalized education software ones. Investors have lost billions and billions and billions on these, yet they keep ponying up for the next one. It’s quite a strange phenomenon.
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One of the original sinners gets a comeuppance – sort of.
You love to see it.
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“Whittle by Whittle, we are winning”
It’s whittling away
At shysters every day
The debts are coming due
For some — at least, a few
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Say that ten times fast: “whittle by whittle, we are winning”
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The Avenues is an example off de facto segregation. Can such an increasingly divided society continue yo exist? I hope not. “Class Divide,” delves into the disparate worlds just across the street from one another — and the children who inhabit each of them.
https://nypost.com/2016/10/02/how-two-girls-tell-two-different-stories-about-growing-up-in-nyc/
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