Education and profit are incompatible, they argue, because the bottom line in public schools is the children, while the bottom line for a private company is profit. At the recent Edventures '98 Conference in Evanston, Illinois, John C. Ronine of JCR Associates, a Beacon Management affiliate in Michigan, tackled the issue as a series of questions. Many for-profit firms are funded by tax dollars to provide such services as garbage collection, tree trimming, and sewer construction. Children are already served by for-profit firms, including textbook publishers and suppliers of desks, pencils, and chalk. But, for some reason, education has not been part of that equation.
Competition brings higher quality and lower cost.
For example, Chrysler CEO Robert A. Lutz said that Chrysler's high-quality product today was brought about by competition from Toyota twenty years ago. Competition motivates people to perform better, as in sports and in music. The management company takes the place of the central office and functions as purchaser, superintendent, secretary, and financial controller, reducing costs rather than increasing them. Most charter schools are started by teachers and people associated with education. They need the management company to run the school while they focus on teaching.