by David Safier
You may have seen the recent articles about investigations into financial and educational abuses at for profit colleges.
My question is, should we have the same concern about K-12 for-profit education?
Arizona is one of the few states where for-profit charter schools are legal. But even in states which only allow nonprofit charters, national Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) often soak up lots of the state money allotted to some charters and pretty much run the schools.
The profit motive in education, especially where government furnishes the funds (for-profit colleges encourage their students to get government grants and government insured loans, and, of course, charter schools get the majority of their funding from the state), too often works against the best interests of the students.
I am aware. The point remains as true regardless of what name is associated with it.
A pretty weak-ass cover, Thane. For the uninitiated, Ragnar Danneskjöld is the fictional pirate character in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlas_Shrugged_characters
There is distortion created by government involvement in any industry. Whether it is the dairy industry or the education industry there are plenty of unfavorable consequences of government use of power and money to favor one group over another.
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