It's just like HMO's. Pick a couple failings of the existing system, claim the problems are incurable, start a system that will "fix" everything, throw a couple bones to the suckers at a loss (e.g. "scholarships" for charters for the very poorest), crow about your successes, hide your failures and get people to expand the system and dismantle what was working in favor of this new, superior privatized system.

Once you sweep the old system out, then you got em! Happily screw the American people every single chance you get for every dime you can squeeze! The American dream made manifest! Education as a new profit center!

Of course, you have to show an increased profit every quarter, just like every business right? That way the CEO's can say they earned their huge salaries. After all, MBA's can manage ANY enterprise -- it's just a business and it doesn't matter what it makes as long as it makes money.

Pretty quick you claim that it isn't your fault that our children are actually getting less of an education than they even used to. It's labor problems -- after all how can you be a profitable school if you have to pay the teachers that much money? Teachers don't need a retirement plan! They should be investing a fraction of their $20k/year as they go like responsible people do. Older teachers cost too much to employ full time anyway, so make sure you keep the talent pool young and working long hours for nothing. If you have to, maybe you can hire from the wal-mart greeter crowd and have adjuncts do teaching part time in retirement. Maybe you can push to import Indian teachers on H1-B's! Obviously they'll do the same job for less and they come from an education system that isn't so broken!

Start allowing for mortgages for the common sap to pay for grade school? Yes, obviously. After all you plan for a house, retirement, medical insurance -- why shouldn't you have to do financial planning to afford to put your children through school as well. It's not like education comes for free after all! Nor is it a right -- it's a consumer product!

Sickening, regrettable and completely predictable.

I weep for the shortsighted fools who will destroy public education for greed.

And for all you privatization advocates out there -- thanks so much! I just love your exercises in social darwinism. Fortunately the health care system is so screwed up due to your efforts I probably won't live long enough to see what a f'ed up mess you make out of education.