Corporate raider Carl Icahn thinks so, and he’s betting millions on the dream.
After squeezing billions out of weak companies over the past two decades for himself and shareholders, the 64-year-old investor has surprised the business world again by filing plans to open the Icahn School in the South Bronx for 108 students in kindergarten through second grade.
His proposal was one of 37 applications for new charter schools in the state – including eight in the city – revealed last week by the state Charter Schools Institute. And Icahn expects more schools to follow.
“It’s going to work,” Icahn told The Post in an exclusive interview. “I believe in education – it’s the only way problems can ever be solved.”
Icahn plans to lecture and give motivational talks to the 108 young kids he’s targeting in the impoverished South Bronx neighborhood.
“I’ll work directly with them, sure, if they want me to,” he said.
He knows the area well.
Around the corner from his school site, Icahn has been running a shelter for the last four years for homeless young moms and pregnant women. It’s called the Icahn House, and he often shows up quietly to visit.
It’s a soft side of Icahn that few know. His reputation has been that of a crafty wheeler-dealer who can shake money out of trees, and topple a CEO or two along the way.
But as he grows older and richer – Forbes says he’s worth $4.5 billion – Icahn says he wants leave more of a legacy.
His charter school will focus on getting kids well-grounded in the basics.
He plans to use highly paid professionals who’ll provide pupils with the kind of rigorous education they’d gain in top private schools for the rich.
“I want them to have the very best,” Icahn said, adding that he’s aware that it will cost millions to run the school.
Icahn already awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to bright and talented ghetto kids so they can attend Connecticut’s Choate, one of the top prep-schools in the country.
“We gave around 20 scholarships this year,” Icahn said.
For the past nine years, Icahn has been shepherding poor kids through the hallowed halls of Choate, whose grads include John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson.
Icahn is on the school’s board and sent his two sons there. “We just got our first four kids in Ivy League schools,” Icahn said, showing as much enthusiasm for their progress as he does for his megadeals.
He said the school project is probably one of his biggest deals ever.
“It’s not going to be profit-making. It’s about making changes and making schools work. I can’t think of anything bigger than that.
“This is going to be the first of several schools, not just here in New York, but across the country.
“It’s no secret that there are excessive costs in running schools in New York and other places,” Icahn said. “There’s way too much bureaucracy.”
Icahn likes the alternative of creating schools that are run like businesses, without bureaucracy.
“We hope to set up a good model or two that others can find useful for setting up charters,” said Icahn, whose Foundation for Greater Opportunity is bankrolling the project.
Icahn was drilled early in the need to read and learn.
“I was this poor kid in a tough high school – Far Rockaway High [in Queens],” he said. “I was the first one from Far Rockaway to go to an Ivy League school.”
Icahn went to Princeton, and recently donated $20 million to his alma mater for a new genetics center to be named after him.
But he’s more thrilled lately that the school in the South Bronx will also be named after him.