On 6 November 2025, officials from Spring Education Group announced that in May 2026, at the conclusion of the school year, Stratford School will close its Richmond District Campus located at 645 14th Avenue in San Francisco, California, which hitherto has served as a private preschool and elementary school with a Mandarin immersion program.
Although a statement on the school’s web page doesn't disclose a specific cause for the closure, there is speculation that San Francisco's declining birth rate along with the exodus of new families from the city due to housing scarcity, overall cost of living and concerns about quality of life amid San Francisco's high crime and homelessness rates has precipitated a drop in enrollment at the Stratford School’s 14th Avenue campus.
Founded in the back of a church in Danville, California in 1999 by early childhood educator Sherry Adams, Stratford School is now a chain of more than 30 campuses across California, offering preschool through high school education with over 9,000 students enrolled. Since 2017, Stratford School has been owned by Primavera Capital Group, a private equity fund founded in China with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Palo Alto. Spring Educational Group, a subsidiary of Primavera, owns more private schools than any company, diocese, congregation or individual, with 240 facilities across 19 states, including Montessori nurseries and K-12 facilities in California, STEM-focused elementary schools in Texas, and eight elite BASIS academies in Washington DC, New York and elsewhere.
According to an exposé by David Rose published on Unherd.com, Primavera Capital’s founder and chairman, Fred Hu, is an ardent Chinese nationalist with strong financial and political ties to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, earning him the nickname “Red Fred.”
As David Rose researched his exposé, he stumbled upon a letter issued in 2019 from China’s Ministry of Education disclosing that 45 Chinese embassies under instructions from President Xi Jinping had conducted “systematic research” on how to set up and run schools abroad to disseminate “excellent Chinese culture” and indoctrinate the children of Chinese expatriates.
Historically, when a private equity firm buys a company, it takes a view to maximize profits and returns for investors, usually within three to seven years. As the ultimate goal is to eventually sell the company at a higher price or extract value, this often causes the acquired company to suffer financial distress that easily becomes unsustainable, often resulting in the business being shuttered. In the event that this happens with a trucking company, a turkey farm or an appliance store, consumers end up inconvenienced. However, when an educational facility ends up fiscally squeezed out of existence amid a takeover by an equity firm, the consequences go far beyond mere inconvenience. For example, studies have shown that pupils that experience school closures during their K-12 career have lower test scores along with worse attendance and behavior in the short term and later in life may struggle to finish college and experience difficulties in the job market.
In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, which was delivered without warning, angry parents, led by Hilary Ong, began circulating a petition to keep the Inner Richmond campus open. In addition to expressing “disappointment, anger and loss of trust” and lamenting “lack of transparency and accountability,” the petition points out that many of the parents who enrolled their children at Stratford School's 14th Avenue campus have purchased homes nearby, endured long commutes and spent an average of approximately $28,000 per year per student on tuition. The petition also requests that representatives from the Spring School, a subsidiary of Primavera Capital, to meet with students and parents to discuss reasons for the closure, brainstorm alternatives and consider viable transition plans for students and staff along with continuing the Mandarin immersion program. In spite of the bad feelings expressed, the petition optimistically states, “...we believe it is not too late for Stratford to demonstrate integrity and leadership by engaging with families and finding a solution together.”
As of this writing, the petition has accumulated over 500 signatures.
