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| Koldyke |
It all began when venture capitalist and
Mayor Daley golf buddy,
Mike Koldyke(Frontenac Capital) decided he could save the public school system by running it like a business. Frontenac had been a big investor in for-profit colleges like DeVry and Rasmussen College, which trained technically skilled workers for local businesses.
Scrutiny of for-profit colleges by the feds has them, and everybody across the for-profit sector, examining how they measure student success and relying more and more on standardized testing.
In 2001, with lots of political clout and years of good will built up from his days sponsoring the Golden Apple Foundation, and as a trustee of the Chicago Public Education Fund, Koldyke decided to get into the heavily D.O.E.-funded school-
turnaround business by establishing his own non-profit venture, the
Academy for 
