FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, New York
September 18, 2006

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$19 Million Investment Supports SchoolNet’s Mission to Improve the Nation's Public Schools

SchoolNet, Inc., a leading software company that helps public school districts improve efficiency and increase academic achievement, today announced the completion of a $19 million Series C financing. The investors, who include The Carlyle Group, Hamilton Lane, and New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF), were impressed with the impact that the company is having with public school districts across the nation. SchoolNet is revolutionizing the way school administrators operate, the way teachers teach, the way parents stay involved, and the way children learn.

Founded in 1998 as a for-profit company with a philanthropic mission to improve the world's education systems, SchoolNet currently serves over 50 American cities (including, Atlanta, Chicago, Corpus Christi, New York, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.) that educate over 2.5 million students in 14 states. 

Since the School District of Philadelphia began implementing SchoolNet in 2003, the results have been remarkable:

• The number of schools attaining state-required passing grades according to the federal No Child Left Behind regulations has nearly tripled in just two years.
• Math scores have risen 22.3 percentage points since 2002.
• Reading scores have risen 14.1 percentage points since 2002.
• The percentage of all students scoring advanced/proficient in math increased by 23 percentage points between 2002 and 2006.

“SchoolNet is the greatest thing since the printing press,” stated Vince DeTolla, Executive Director Education Technology, School District of Philadelphia. “SchoolNet is the killer application education has been waiting for.”

Corpus Christi Independent School District serves 39,200 students. In 2003 the District implemented SchoolNet and quickly began to see positive results like Philadelphia.

SchoolNet's technology enabled Corpus to reach its goals. Teachers were able to quickly target students who needed remediation programs, significantly reduce Special Ed referrals, and for the first time teachers were  able to access over 700 lesson plans on their computers.   

"SchoolNet is the greatest education reform Corpus Christi Independent School District has engaged in the last 10 years," stated Dr. Katherine Conoly, Executive Director, Special Programs for Corpus Christi Independent School District .

"We are delighted to receive financing from such socially involved financial partners," said Jonathan D. Harber, CEO and President of SchoolNet. "The funds will allow SchoolNet to impact even more children and teachers, in more classes, in more schools, in more cities." 

Brian Hayhurst, Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, commented: "We believe K-12 education is a large, growing market. SchoolNet's success with large urban districts puts them in a distinctive position to lead the market."

"This growth capital will enable SchoolNet to continue to advance its leadership in K-12 education technology," said David Helgerson, Vice President of Hamilton Lane.

 "We're pleased to support a company that provides school systems with greater capacity to measure and manage educational outcomes," said Kathryn S. Wylde, President and CEO, Partnership for New York City (NYCIF).

About SchoolNet, Inc.
SchoolNet Inc., the leader in School Performance Management Systems, improves efficiency and increase achievement in school systems.  SchoolNet's Performance Management Systems are built upon an open, scalable platform that provides users with the data, reports, tools, and content to develop human capital, individualize instruction, and ensure school improvement.  SchoolNet's solutions are used successfully by some of the nation's largest school districts including Philadelphia, Chicago and New York and are based on industry standards such as Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) and the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), as recommended by the U.S. Department of Education's National Education Technology Plan.. SchoolNet is recognized by both Deloitte's Fast 50 and Inc Magazine's Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. SchoolNet was founded in 1988 by MIT Media Lab graduate Jonathan Harber and education author and analyst Denis P. Doyle. For more information, please visit www.schoolnet.com

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with $41.9 billion under management. Carlyle invests in buyouts, venture & growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, focusing on aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, healthcare, industrial, technology & business services and telecommunications & media. Since 1987, the firm has invested $19.7 billion of equity in 500 transactions for a total purchase price of $79.7 billion. The Carlyle Group employs more than 670 people in 15 countries. In the aggregate, Carlyle portfolio companies have more than $46 billion in revenue and employ more than 224,000 people around the world.

About NYCIF/NYSBVF

The New York City Investment Fund (www.nycif.com) is the vision of Henry R. Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., who serves as its Co-Chairman, along with Russell L. Carson, General Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. The Investment Fund has raised over $100 million to mobilize the city's world financial and business leaders to help build a stronger and more diversified local economy. To that end, the Investment Fund has built a network of top experts from the investment and corporate communities who help identify and support New York City's most promising entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. The Investment Fund is the investment and the economic development arm of the Partnership for New York City (www.pfnyc.org), the city's largest business organization. The New York Small Business Venture Fund (NYSBVF) is a certified capital company that NYCIF organized to participate in a New York State program that provides tax credits to insurance companies that invest in small businesses via certified capital companies (CAPCOs).

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane is a private, independently owned alternative asset manager providing discretionary and non-discretionary asset management services in the private equity and hedge fund asset classes to institutional investors worldwide. Founded in 1991, the firm oversees over $50 billion on behalf of institutional clients and has approximately 70 private equity employees operating out of offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Hamilton Lane is majority owner of The Richcourt Group, which it acquired in 2004. Richcourt has over 20 hedge fund professionals with offices in New York, Paris and Monaco.