Why is Edison Schools, a start-up firm that advanced a great idea to address a pressing need, an outfit with many talented people and lots of investor capital, still struggling to succeed in its core business of managing schools? According to Tom Toch, analyst at the National Center on Education and the Economy and author of a long-awaited forthcoming book on Edison, the firm's difficulties arise from the political environment it has encountered while dealing with traditional public school and charter school boards. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, Toch noted that Edison doesn't run its own schools; it runs other people's schools and a variety of political barriers in many locales have left the company unable to implement its school plans without making serious compromises. Edison has full control over the hiring of only about 40 percent of its principals and thus cannot always let the weakest principals go. Edison has also inherited veteran teachers whom it is powerless to get rid of--teachers who are at the top of the salary schedule but are not invested in Edison's vision. Edison's plight, Toch concludes, is a lesson in why the nation's schools are so troubled and why it is so hard to fix them. Following Toch's AEI presentation, Mary Ann Schmitt of New American Schools added her own analysis of mistakes Edison has made and challenges that any for-profit or nonprofit provider will face in the current policy environment.
A summary of the AEI event, "The Future of For-Profit Schooling: What Do Edison Schools Reveal about the Politics of School Reform?" held on January 13, 2003, is available at http://aei.org/events/eventID.60/summary.asp