The Future of Education Is Cradle-to-Grave

School leaders contemplating strategic options need to anticipate where the education field itself is heading. A new report from the Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech) Center for 21st Century Universities describes a future research university that looks little like those of today. Since private, independent and international schools are in the business of (among other things) preparing students for entry to those universities, the ideas in the report are worth some attention. In most instances, even the provocative ideas are really just extensions of trends already well underway.Private K-12 schools should take note of what is happening farther along the education food chain since higher ed is grappling with some of the same issues we are: soft demand, price-point resistance, and rising costs to name a few. One of the more intriguing notions is the report's envisioning of education as a field no longer tethered to the age and developmental stage of the student, but rather as something that humans engage with in different ways all across the lifespan. While this seems innocuous enough, the impact on the field's business model might be transformative.One idea envisioned in the article is that education will become a subscription model service, either accessible via a monthly, yearly, or lifetime fee. The money party may or may not work out, but the notion that education is literally a cradle-to-grave industry seems inevitable.