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The Market in Theory Meets the Market in Practice: The Case of Edison Schools

Edison Schools, Inc., promised it would reinvent education. As the country's largest for-profit education management organization (EMO), it offers a case study in how the industry is functioning. Bracey finds that the company's claims of improved school performance are not supported by objective data, and its political and fiscal maneuvers to win and retain contracts suggest that the demand for revenues overrides the needs of children. Bracey's report is based on research he conducted for his book, The War Against America's Public Schools: Parents' Edition, Allyn & Bacon (2002).