In Chapter 4 of 23 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, charter school CFO Andrew Epstein answers "Why Do You Believe That Education Equality is the Civil Rights Movement of Our Generation?" Epstein believes all American children need to be educated and failing schools and poor teaching are creating generations of children that are not learning to read and write. As more low-skilled jobs move abroad, Epstein sees college preparatory education as more important as ever. He believes charter schools address this problem by introducing choice into a previously closed market.
Andrew Epstein is CFO of the Ascend Learning Charter School Network. Previously, Epstein was a finance executive at Democracy Prep Public Schools and an operations executive at Universal Music Group's Island Def Jam Records. He is a former Teach for America corps member and middle-school science teacher. He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia Business School.