In answering the question posed in the title, the author begins with a story that businessman Jamie Vollmer told to educators a few years ago. In examining business involvement in U.S. school reform, the author looks at the 1890s through 1920s and the 1970s to the present--two points in history when business leaders and educational entrepreneurs, fearful of the United States losing out in the global marketplace, sought major school reforms. In this article, he discusses three basic differences that separate businesses from schools: (1) multiple purposes of tax-supported public schools; (2) public responsibility for achieving these purposes; and (3) democratic deliberations in deciding policies and determining school success. He also offers examples of corporate malfeasance to illustrate a major difference in decision making between U.S. businesses and public schools.