I think it is important to articulate why I am against for-profit organizations running schools. This isn’t to say that there aren’t good people working in some of those schools, and this isn’t to say that kids don’t learn at all in those schools. It is, instead, an argument about systems and what kind of structures we should build.

I don’t believe in for-profit education because so much of what gives a company the ability to make money doesn’t apply in schools.

To wit – states allocate money to schools. The same per-child (with exceptions for Special Education) in a district. So the only way to make a profit is to spend less money.

Think about that for a moment — the only way for a for-profit school is to spend less money per child.

Call it "discovering efficiencies" or whatever you want, given the lack of ability to affect pricing, the only way a for-profit charter operator makes money is to spend less per child.

I’m not o.k. with that.

And if "discovering efficiencies" means paying young teachers less money just because you can trade on their idealism, then I’m even less o.k. with that.

if a school has figured out some efficiencies, then that money should be put right back into the school, not into a profit margin. Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but most for-profit charter operators work in districts that tend to be underfunded to begin with.

Found a way to save money on textbooks? Awesome, start a chess team.

Found a way to reduce the number of administrative staffers needed by streamlining business practice? Great, hire another teacher.

Found a way to lower facilities costs? Great, take a field trip so the kids can have powerful out-of-school learning experiences.

You get the idea.

Some things shouldn’t be for-profit. School is top of my list.