What began as an ambitious experiment in rethinking education has since spiraled into lawsuits, leadership clashes, layoffs and even a breakaway school formed by some of its own insiders. (1)
For families paying upward of $44,500 a year in tuition (2), the expectation might be stability and opportunity.
Instead, the saga highlights a broader reality: When extreme wealth and influence shape education, the results can be just as volatile as the industries that created that wealth.
When money shapes the classroom
Tessellations isn't an isolated case. It's an exaggerated version of a broader trend in American education. High-income families already spend significantly more on schooling and enrichment than others. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows top-earning households devote far more to education, from private school tuition to tutoring and extracurriculars (3).
While the average private school tuition in the U.S. is just over $12,000 annually, according to the Education Data Initiative (4), elite institutions in places like Silicon Valley can charge several times that. That financial power doesn't just buy access. It can also influence how schools operate.
At Tessellations, former staff alleged that donor families sometimes had sway over decisions, including student placement. More broadly, research from the Brookings Institution has found that access to advanced educational opportunities is heavily shaped by income and parental involvement (5).
There's also evidence that intense parental pressure can complicate school environments. The American Psychological Association has linked high levels of parental involvement, sometimes described as "helicopter parenting," to increased stress for students (6). At Tessellations, that led to disputes over curriculum, complaints from neighbors and even families left scrambling after last-minute admissions reversals.
Why a startup mindset doesn't translate to schools
Part of the tension came from trying to run a school like a tech company. Tessellations' founder scaled enrollment rapidly, growing from a few dozen students to nearly 300 in just a few years, while experimenting with unconventional fundraising and flexible curricula.
But education systems tend to rely on consistency, not disruption. Research backs that up. The National Center for Education Statistics has consistently found that stable school environments are key to student success. Meanwhile, the Learning Policy Institute reports that high teacher turnover, like the midyear layoffs seen at Tessellations, can negatively affect student achievement and school culture.
