Whittle Communications, Inc. plans to launch a nationwide chain of private, for-profit schools and sell its proprietary educational products, instructional technology, and management services to school boards. Whittle schools will enroll children aged 3 months to 18 years, schedule hours coinciding with parents' working days, and operate…

Chester Upland School District, which finished last out of 501 systems in Pennsylvania, is a guinea pig for the private management of public education. Managing 9 of Chester's 10 schools, Edison Schools and its subsidiary Edison/Learn Now is banking on turning around the district with its longer class day, structured curriculum teacher training,…

The growing field of profit-making public-school management represents a way to begin school reform and save money. Educational Alternatives, Inc. has an agreement to manage eight elementary schools and one middle school in Baltimore, Maryland; and Whittle Communications, Inc. plans to seek contracts to manage existing public school programs. (MLF)

Advocates hail privatization as an effective, cost-efficient tool for school boards in meeting their wide-ranging obligations and diverse responsibilities. Critics see privatization as movement away from a publicly owned and operated institution with broad citizen support to a hollow structure that compromises public education's goals. A sidebar…

The Clark County Nevada Board of Trustees voted unanimously in April, 2001 to approve a 5-year, more than $35 million contract with Edison Schools to run seven of the district's lowest-achieving schools. Describes the decision process and reports what the board and the superintendent learned. One of their biggest lessons was the importance of…