A study by the RAND Corp. early this year found no impact of private management on student performance.
In a new study, Paul Peterson and Mathew Chingo, researchers at Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, contradict this finding. Analyzing for-profit management in Philadelphia public schools, they conclude that “those who need to make a profit have strong incentives to do well by their customers” and that this approach succeeds well in educating students in even the most troubled of urban schools.
Chalk up yet another victory for Adam Smith.