This Week in Edtech with Ben Kornell, 1/28/22

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Topics This Week:

1) Labor Shortages Loom in K12

• Almost half of all teachers are thinking of leaving their jobs
• Particularly hurting struggling readers

2) College Enrollments Dropping, Higher Ed Making Digital Shifts

• Colleges have seen the biggest drop in enrollment in 50 years 
• Some are adapting to a new future with Hybrid College Classrooms 

3) School Districts Getting more Cyberattacks and Ransomware

• Cyberattacks on school districts getting more frequent across the country
• Georgia to provide cybersecurity platform to all schools
• Experts are recommending more preparation and more attention be paid despite limited resources
• The 2020 K12 Cybersecurity Act is intended to help

4) Mergers and Acquisitions

• Soapbox labs partners with McGraw Hill
• Literati Acquires Follett Book Fairs 

5) Omicron Stimulus Money Being spent on Virtual Tutoring

• Back to School, but Still Learning Online (NYT)

NOTE: A few important things happened this week after recording, which can be read below and will be covered in next week's episode.

1) Spain-based Domestika, an online platform for creatives, received a $100m round at a $1.3b valuation, becoming the latest Edtech Unicorn.
2) Fourthrev, a UK-based career accelerator program, announced an $8m Series A.
3) Brighteye Ventures put out its 2022 European Edtech Funding Report. Breakdown from Brighteye head of research here.
4) Singapore-based college application platform Cialfo received a $40m funding round.
5) Singapore-based personalized coaching and mentoring platform Ascend Now received a $2.1m seed round.