There is no "silver bullet" to improving low-income public schools. Yet the business community, backed by powerful political interests, has tended to seize on the quick fix of treating public schools as little more than another business venture needing market discipline. The epitome of this approach has found expression in "for-profit" education management companies such as Edison Schools, who seek to make profits for their shareholders by operating public schools and squeezing dollars out of already under-funded budgets.

Across the country, under-performing districts have been under intense pressure to succumb to for-profit management, taking needed time and attention from more promising -- but less lucrative -- solutions such as smaller classes, improved teacher training, and adequate school funding.

The Wall Street investment community, prone to simplistic stereotypes of bloated bureaucracies running our urban schools, saw a chance to make profits off our public schools. Yet those involved in the daily life of public education know there is only one sure way to make money from public education: either reduce the salaries of teachers and staff, or reduce the services offered. There is little "fat" in urban public school budgets.

When Edison claimed it could provide more services, offer a longer school year and still make a profit, educators were understandably dubious. The investment community, willing to look the other way at questionable business promises, touted Edison's potential for years.

And then the bubble burst. In the months following the Enron debacle, weary investors decided to take a hard look at Edison's finances and broken promises. They were forced to acknowledge that Edison had never made a dime of profit and was unlikely to do so at any point in the foreseeable future. Edison's stock, which had stood at around $20 a share at the year's beginning, tumbled by late May to $1.30 a share.

As is often the case with pack journalism, the media suddenly "discovered" Edison's many problems -- although educators and alternative publications had been sounding warnings for years. The mainstream media was forced to play catch-up and print information long available through the alternative media.

As a publicly traded company, many of Edison's finances are available to the public. As a start, do a search through the web for Edison Schools. Yahoo's finance section is one of many places to start (search under EDSN). And there are a number of education activists with background on Edison, ranging from Rethinking Schools (www.rethinkingschools.org), to Philadelphia Public School Notebook (e-mail: psnotebook@aol.com), to Parents Advocating School Accountability (www.pasasf.org).

-- Barbara Miner