Educators Contemplate Private Management of Public Schools

Over the past 15 years, private corporations have made their mark on public schools in America, but whether this will be education reform's salvation remained an unanswered question for many educators at the Askwith Education forum on Wednesday, October 11. Even though districts contract year after year with textbook, transportation, and food vendors, management of public schools--a $400 billion segment of the economy--had been strictly off limits to private enterprise and market forces for many years. However, as private organizations have begun to manage some public schools, a number of questions have been raised: Are these organizations better at running schools? Are students learning faster? Are the for-profit operators making money?

These issues were among many discussed during the first Askwith Education forum for the 2006 – 2007 year. Panelists included Steve Wilson, senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, who discussed private management and his recent book, "Learning on the Job: When Business Takes on Public Schools," and Anrig Professor Richard Elmore, who provided commentary on Wilson's book and the overall issue of private management of public schools. Senior Lecturer James Honan moderated the discussion.

"This is a very important topic in education reform," Wilson said. He explained that America has been doing a disservice to millions of children, particularly in urban areas, by denying the promise of a free education. "We are not doing well and we haven't for a long time," he said, pointing out that 45 percent of all fourth graders can't read at a basic level, the United States ranks 19 out of 21 nations in education, and despite an increase in educational funding by 50 percent, the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores haven't shown much improvement.

Wilson sees private management as a different and effective way to deliver education to the public. Although Wilson admitted that the first wave of private management of schools--nearly 15 years ago--was barely successful, he said the second wave has proven more fruitful as evidence now shows students are learning faster. Wilson also pointed out that many of the problems that stand in private management's way are local bureaucracy, like governance and ongoing funding issues. Traditional public school districts receive up to 40 percent more funding than private, organized schools.

"It's not right to ask private to do better with less," he said. "We need to level the playing field financially." While Elmore agreed with Wilson that schools most chronic problem can be attributed to a "deeply dysfunctional, outdated, governance managerial structure," he said that it wasn't true that nothing was being done to combat the issue. Among some of the factors that need to be addressed include the poorly-designed accountability system that is pushing schools into reconstitution, the mania for smaller schools, and whether to close low-performing schools altogether, Elmore said.

According to Elmore, studies don't explicitly show private management as the answer to many of the systemic problems plaguing schools. In fact, many of the differences Elmore has seen in studies regarding private management show trivial differences and even sometimes favor traditional schools. Elmore points out that the "track record" so far for private management of schools isn't good and can create an even bigger battle for private corporations that embark on this endeavor.

"The more the public becomes aware, the more difficult it will be to make private management of public schools," he said. In closing, Honan asked each panelist about the future of private management of public schools in 20 years. While Elmore couldn't guarantee private management's success in the future, Wilson declared that, ultimately, private management would demonstrate "true intellectual property."