LYCOS RETRIEVER 
John Sperling
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(FORTUNE Magazine) – John Sperling was in his office in Phoenix when he got the call. His longtime friend Lou Hawthorne was phoning to tell him that scientists at Texas A&M University had successfully cloned a cat, the first-ever genetically engineered pet. That was great news for Sperling, the sole funder of the project. Back in 1997, he and Hawthorne had selected a team of genetic experts and given them lots of money for research. In went Sperling's $4 million and out came a purring bundle of fur. Yet it wasn't exactly what the billionaire Arizona businessman had hoped for.
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John Sperling was born dirt-poor, fell in with Communists, and became a union organizer who led a strike that ended in disaster. Today, he runs the world's largest for-profit university -- and a company whose shares are defying gravity on Wall Street. So why do so many smart people say such terrible things about him? And why does he relish their attacks?
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A little more than 20 years ago, university professor John Sperling decided he wanted to start a new kind of educational system to cater specifically to working adults. Sperling was a professor at San Jose State University at that time, when adults over the age of 24 made up a little more than 25% of the total student population. But Sperling had a strong feeling that this statistic would grow dramatically over the next two decades. He went with his gut feeling and started Apollo Group, Inc.
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Over the years, John Sperling’s University of Phoenix (U of P) has received a lot of criticisms. It has been accused to furnish degree mills and worst, a phony school. The grounds were due to the fast- track programs that permit students to obtain diplomas as quickly as possible. A lot of individuals noted that U of P is more interested in favoring shareholders while observing the profit increase than guaranteeing students of a credible education. If you carefully go over the history of the institution, that would be absolutely unfair. This academic foundation actually implements strict qualifications before a person will be granted a certificate.
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John Sperling is ranked at 361 out of the 400 richest people in America, and 799 on the world's billionaire list with about $1.4 billion in net worth. His is twice divorced (maybe third time's the charm?) and 86 years old. He made his fortune with the Apollo Group. What's that, you say? Well, you might know this company by its more familiar local name: University of Phoenix. John Sperling founded this University for working adults in 1973 which is now the largest private university system in the U.S. with both online and traditional programs.
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John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank, argues that Sperling's data is intriguing but his approach is doomed. "It would be a hard sell to convince Americans that we should just forget about retro America," he says. Sperling's proposal is a "mirror image of Karl Rove. It embraces wedge politics and just tries to get you to 51 percent. And it just seems inconceivable Kerry would run a political strategy based on that."
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John Sperling