Both Educational Alternatives Inc. and Baltimore City Schools learned some hard lessons about contracting for educational services and funding politics. Administrators should anticipate conflict; secure community support; establish specific educational objectives, project milestones, funding-linked accountability mechanisms, and a time-frame;…

An Ohio superintendent's need to contain administrative costs, replace aging buses, and improve his district's financial health prompted consideration of contracting for student transportation. After 2 years of contracting out, students are safer, a $215,000 savings has been realized, the bus drivers (former district employees) are happier, and…

The $300 billion-a-year public education market has many private investors salivating--until they confront the complexity of school management and teacher unions' resistance. Private companies want to shift the school board's role from sole proprietor to purchaser of educational services. Sidebars advise superintendents and describe 15 private…

A former U.S. commissioner of education wonders if privatization and vouchers represent threats, annoyances, or utopias. Private contracting could hinder community involvement and the teacher professionalization movement. Profit-making goals might resolve class size policy in favor of economic efficiency, not student learning. Vouchers will reduce…

Rejecting the voucher concept for promoting unequal education, this article endorses the "public/private partnership" model of reinvented school governance. Under this system, teachers and administrators remain public employees but are managed by a private company. Jay P. Goldman's sidebar criticizes privatization schemes as unworkable…

Successful outsourcing is a learning process demanding careful planning, commitment, and heavy communication. The process also requires a strong leadership and a cohesive school board ready to weather a cultural change. Service employee options, contractors' managerial expertise, increased efficiency, and partnership opportunities are possible…

The author of "Risky Business: Private Management of Public Schools" examines privatization efforts by Educational Alternatives Inc. and the Edison Project. Privatization actually represents two different interests: a conservative ideological crusade and a nonpartisan exercise in pursuing good government. Most arrangements have not…

Suggests administrators advocate against the juggernaut of business-minded, profit-driven, and commercial forces threatening to privatize public schools or make them public instruments of private greed. Notes that by cutting public funding for schools that serve the poorest children, corporate forces have turned many school officials into…

A $500-billion industry, K-12 education offers attractive investment possibilities. Public education is being broadly criticized; state governments favor new program structures; the school-age population is growing; new technologies offer entrepreneurial opportunities; school revenues provide ready capital; and the knowledge industry is booming.…

Like county governments, hospitals, and municipalities, superintendents must develop policies and protocols for requesting proposals, administering contracts, and ensuring desired results of private-sector services. Administrators should consider performance criteria, legal issues, cost and efficiency analysis, contractor evaluation criteria, and…