Baltimore schools have begun their second year of a controversial $133 million contract with Minneapolis-based Education Alternatives Incorporated, a private, for-profit firm now managing nine of the city's most troubled schools. Sylvan Learning Systems, a for-profit company, administers the Chapter 1 tutoring program at six other schools. The…

The Russian entrepreneur faces major obstacles to any long-term business venture, including hyperinflation, ineffective or missing legal procedures, infrastructure problems, and corruption in government and private sectors. Encouragement of entrepreneurial enterprise formation may help creative Russians help the country find its own prosperity.…

A private organization (Education Alternative, Inc.) is presently managing nine Baltimore public schools; Christopher Whittle's Edison Project is planning similar public school management projects; a private consulting company (Public Strategies Group) recently took charge of the Minneapolis public schools. Goaded by concerns about accountability…

Provides case studies and data from the major telecommunications service providers in most of the industrialized countries. Discusses reasons for the persistence of monopolies and the difficulty of affecting organizational change. Looks at privatization, challenges facing the workforce, and new job opportunities that would result. (JOW)

As Arthur Schlesinger predicted, private interests are subverting public purpose. The narrative of economic utility dominates school reform. Reform language is not uplifting and embodies the traditional connotations of things gone wrong that need correcting. The language of renewal celebrates the self and reflects a supportive, caring ethos. (25…

The three major players in the current efforts to privatize schools are the following companies: Education Alternatives, Inc., the Edison Project, and Public Strategies Group Inc. Explanations of their programs include core competencies, economic capability, technological capability, and strategic capability. (MLF)

Explores the history of privatizing university housing and some current financing options, including use of developer and private foundations. Examples of successful alternative financing methods are highlighted. (GR)

Foster parents were surveyed concerning their attitudes toward the privatization of family foster care services in Kansas. Respondents reported their current level of satisfaction, opinions about privatization, and their experiences with new community-based treatment teams. Responses indicated that satisfaction remained high, but also variances in…

This article examines some of the controversial issues emerging from the privatization of biomedical research and commercialization of biotechnology. The aim is to identify the dominant social, political, and ethical risks associated with the recent shift from academic to corporate science and from the increasing emphasis on investing in research…

As amply documented by "evangelical/liberal" Jim Wallis in his new "God's Politics", any country can be profoundly improved by voices of faith, hope, and love whose appeals are to reason, conscience, and civility, and who have avoided the entrapments of partisanship. Among such voices have been those of Martin Luther King,…

A National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) report addresses the questions "What have conservative foundations done with their grant dollars to promote concepts of privatizing public education through "school choice," primarily linked to school vouchers? What were their strategies in providing resources to an array of conservative…

This article is a policy analysis that considers how the policy option of using federal programs to promote educational choice was proposed and debated in the 106th and 107th Congresses. This debate was part of the reauthorization of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) between 1999 and 2001. Over the past 20 years,…

The long-sustained effort of conservatives and their think tanks and media outlets to win support for school choice, market forces, and privatization schemes in education is paying off. But it is encountering steady resistance from the public education establishment and its supporting teachers' unions. Actions, reactions, strategies, and the…

This article presents a reply to "Edison Is the Symptom, NCLB Is the Disease" by Peter Campbell--a critique that portrayed the school as an exploitative environment, a veritable plantation subjugating poor minority children through mind-numbing, compliance-inducing drills. The author refutes the specific charges leveled against…

Arne Duncan, the brightest and most dedicated schools leader Chicago has had in memory, wants Chicago to be a Mecca where entrepreneurship can flourish. In this article, the authors contend that private management of Chicago schools is a long way from Mecca. There is no evidence or educational research whatsoever to show that privately run…