While innovative reformers in America’s education system are constantly working outside the box, rarely are their efforts subjected to careful consideration. Frederick M. Hess, resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI, changes that with his newest book, Educational Entrepreneurship: Realities, Challenges, Possibilities, published in September by Harvard Education Press. Essays from scholars, policy experts, and several entrepreneurs acquaint readers with educational entrepreneurship and its successes, challenges, and opportunities for growth.

At an AEI book forum to discuss these issues, Hess explained the idea of educational entrepreneurship and the significance of emerging entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is at the heart of education reform today. In fact, given the spectacular failure of so many public schools in the United States, entrepreneurs and innovators ought to be more involved in education. "We are not good at predicting success ahead of time," Hess said, "which is why we have to let smart people get their hands on capital, take advantage of opportunities, and see what they can discover and invent."

Among the education innovators at the conference was Michael Feinberg of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). KIPP runs fifty-two schools in under-resourced communities across the country. KIPP schools require students to spend more time in school, they maintain high expectations, and they emphasize measurable achievement through high test scores. One reason for KIPP’s success, Feinberg said, is that school leaders have "control over their staffs, budgets, and curriculum, and they run the school the way they see fit." KIPP’s entrepreneurs succeed because they are free to pursue what works best, but KIPP’s expansion has been slow because of institutional barriers to entrepreneurship.

Michelle Rhee, president of the New Teacher Project, spoke about her experience as a leader in alternative teacher recruitment. She described the challenges in recruiting new teachers from nontraditional backgrounds into schools, from slow-moving bureaucracies to regulations which prevent many qualified individuals from becoming teachers. (For example, an engineer who did not major in math might be an excellent math teacher.) It is possible to address the teacher shortage with strategic and innovative thinking. School districts cannot take advantage of new and effective recruitment methods because of their ossified institutional cultures. As Rhee put it, "They’ve done things the same way forever. They have no incentive to change."

Edison Schools Inc. manages public schools and charter schools for profit and partners with districts to improve achievement scores. Chris Whittle, the cofounder of Edison, spoke about the challenges that charter schools face. He said that "educational protectionism" is the practice of placing obstacles in the path of educational entrepreneurs. Whittle argued that charter schools are given limited funding, left with the most difficult-to-teach students, and saddled with the most limitations by threatened education establishments.