10 Kids and 2 Caregivers: A Look Inside Elon Musk’s Failed $600 Million School Experiment – The Times of India

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world with a net worth that recently reached $600 billion. Aerospace, cars, AI, social media, administration, there isn’t a cutting-edge industry he hasn’t tapped into and excelled at. But what many are unaware of is that the 54-year-old had also visualized the transformation of the education sector. Learning should be interactive and “as close to a video game as possible,” he once said. Schools should allow children to progress at their own pace, and education should match their skills and abilities, he added. But at his own school, Ad Astra, things are a bit unclear for Musk and his students.

Elon Musk’s college dreams

Since 2023, Musk has been trying to get into the education sector and has even set up a primary school in Bastrop, Texas. The tech giant bought nearly two dozen acres of land, interviewed teachers across the country and created an institute that would include students from kindergarten to fifth or sixth grade. He named the school “Ad Astra,” Latin for “to the stars,” and when registration opened in 2024, thousands of children signed up for about 50 children. “Everyone wants their child to look like Elon Musk,” said Judah Ross, 37, a real estate agent in Bastrop who applied to the New York Times for his three-year-old son.

Elon Musk’s failed education

You might imagine that Elon Musk’s school is a top-tier building, with the latest technology, an interesting syllabus and world-class teachers. Instead, Ad Astra is a house with white columns and a Texas flag, surrounded by a wrought iron fence. Instead of the school it was supposed to be, it is a “licensed child care program” that supervises 10 children ages five and under, according to documents obtained from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Ad Astra has two caregivers, serves crackers and apples as snacks and has planned a nap time where children have their own beds with their names on them, according to a January state report. “The operation does not target school-aged children,” the report added.Ad Astra first opened in 2014 at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. There were 50 students and half of them were related to SpaceX employees, according to a 2022 podcast interview with Josh Dahn, who co-founded the school with Musk.Musk himself sent his five children to the school with Justine Musk. However, the COVID-19 pandemic saw the school switch online and control was later transferred to a charity. In 2021, he founded the same school in Texas, but in 2024 the school appeared to be closed to the public.The Ad Astra in Bastrop wanted to follow a Montessori-style curriculum with 54 students and full-time faculty. However, according to state documents, the company faced problems such as having to reapply for a license to operate a child care program and handling paperwork for a staff member who did not have education credits. The school’s opening was postponed twice, and in October 2024, officials held an informational Zoom meeting for parents where they described the school’s focus on STEM and flexibility, parents told the outlet. Tuition was $1,000 per month with coeducation.

A doomed attempt

Dreamed of as a revolutionary elementary school, Ad Astra is a $600 million effort by Musk that has evolved into a daycare center. Since 2021, Musk has tried to open elementary schools, a high school and a university, according to state documents and interviews with nine people close to his efforts. The X owner founded three schools, but two closed and a third moved online. That year, Jared Birchall, Musk’s top personal advisor, founded a nonprofit called the Foundation aimed at establishing these institutions, and Musk donated $100 million to the organization in 2023. The Musk Foundation, Musk’s main charity, has donated approximately $607 million to the Foundation since 2022. Interestingly enough, the father of 14 most likely does not have any children of his own in his school. He and his partner Shivon Zilis, with whom he has four children, have told people they are homeschooling their children. Although he has been able to crack every sector he has entered, it seems that Musk needs training when it comes to entrepreneurship in education.