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In the nonprofit preschools to be operated by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos鈥� new Day 1 Academies Fund, he says, 鈥渢he child will be the customer.鈥�

Does that stance reflect a market-driven approach to improving early-childhood education? A business play to turn preschoolers into loyal Amazon Prime members? A signal that parents of young children should get ready for the personalized, algorithm-driven recommendation engines upon which Amazon鈥檚 retail empire was built?

Absent any further detail from Bezos and Amazon, the answer for now is that it depends who you ask.

Rhian Allvin, the CEO of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, was among those with a relatively benign view of Bezos鈥� intentions.

鈥淚 interpret it as being a 鈥榗hild centered philosophy,鈥� which is really important,鈥� Allvin said. 鈥淓ach child develops and learns differently.鈥�

A Tech Titan鈥檚 K-12 Footprint

That鈥檚 not inconsistent with the current trend in Silicon Valley, where tech entrepreneurs ranging from Facebook鈥檚 Mark Zuckerberg to small startup founders are trying to blend a focus on the 鈥渨hole child鈥� with data-driven personalization.

鈥淏ezos didn鈥檛 say 鈥榩ersonalized learning,鈥� but I think that鈥檚 what he means,鈥� said independent ed-tech researcher Audrey Watters, who maintains the popular 鈥楬ack Education鈥� blog. 鈥淟ook at Amazon鈥檚 interface, which is constantly monitoring you and collecting data to make better product recommendations.鈥�

If that鈥檚 the case, Watters said, Bezos should proceed with caution. Parents won鈥檛 easily accept the kind of 鈥減ervasive surveillance鈥� that Amazon uses with consumers being applied to their preschoolers, she said.

Are there insights to be gleaned from Amazon鈥檚 existing forays into education?

At the K-12 level, not so much, said Trace Urdan, the K-12 analyst from Tyton Partners. The company鈥檚 most successful plays there have been on the back end of schools鈥� operations, providing cloud storage through Amazon Web Services and seeking to help streamline bulk purchasing of supplies. EdWeek Market Brief, a business intelligence service produced by the publisher of Education Week, explored Amazon鈥檚 growing footprint in the K-12 space, and the clout that it and other tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft wield in the school market, in a special report last year.

Amazon鈥檚 approach to higher education could be more relevant. By trying to make textbook buying as easy and inexpensive as possible, Urdan said, Amazon is hoping to gain the loyalty of a key demographic at a critical point in their consumer lives.

But even that example, he said, is probably illustrative mostly as a window into how Bezos鈥� mind works.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 unfair to suggest he wants to secretly groom future Amazon customers at age 4, even though that鈥檚 exactly how Amazon is thinking about college students,鈥� Urdan said."When I think about the Amazon approach, I think about serving up a giant range of options, and delivering them in the most frictionless way possible.鈥�

Does that mean the Day 1 Academies Fund鈥檚 focus will be on giving parents more easily accessible preschool choices?

鈥淚t seems Bezos is probably thinking about innovation, and he鈥檚 going to draw on his experience at Amazon,鈥� Urdan said. 鈥淏eyond that, it鈥檚 all supposition.鈥�