A Company Education Program That's Better Than Starbucks'

Two weeks ago I wrote a story about Starbucks’ announcement that it would help thousands of its 135,000 workers earn college degrees. Billionaire Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz presented the plan at a Town Hall-style meeting in Manhattan, flanked by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, Starbucks’ partner in the program. A grinning Schultz also appeared that night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, kicking off his interview by saying, “Today we announced that Starbucks would become the first U.S. company to provide free college tuition for all of our employees.” Though the initial coverage that day, like my piece, was laudatory, shortly after the announcement, a raft of stories appeared critiquing the program, pointing out that Schultz’s announcement wasn’t exactly true. I’ll take apart some of that criticism below.