The teacher unions and their allies in the state legislature have long peddled the idea that for-profit management companies should be banned from working in charter schools. This argument has nothing to do with children, and how they've benefited in schools contracting with for-profits. Rather, it's purely about misplaced ideology and hypocrisy.

I point out in today's Daily News (here) that charter schools managed by for-profits academically outperformed their respective school districts in 19 out of 20 measures on last year's state English and math exams in elementary and middle school. That should end this ridiculous debate right there, assuming charter opponents actually have student learning as their focus.

It also is plain hypocritical and absurd to ban a "for-profit" company from contracting with a charter school or any other public school. Why stop there? Why not include school districts and teacher unions, for that matter? For-profit companies are replete in education, providing transportation, maintenance, textbooks, food, professional development and legal services, to name a few. Why, even the teacher unions in New York hire "for-profit" lobbying and law firms to serve their interests, rather than perform all of that in-house. Should we ban that, too?

Unionization for Profit$
Those voices claiming that "no one should profit from education," should be consistent by including a ban on teacher unions altogether since they are all about "profiting from education." Labor Economics 301 taught me that unions are established to collectively bargain under the economic theory that strength in numbers can increase wages at the bargaining table. That college course omitted discussion of the perfected practice of unions lobbying elected officials -- along with supporting or threatening them at election time. In other words, it ain't about brotherhood and solidarity; rather, unionization in the public sector especially is about profit, pure and simple.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with legal profit-making from a company or union standpoint. But, those union interests railing against for-profit companies should stop acting like they are volunteers from the Salvation Army.

The whole debate about banning for-profit management companies is just another example of the many attempts to weaken and cripple the effectiveness of charter schools, which have been a huge overall success in New York, and are nipping at the heels of the teacher unions in a competition to improve public education.

If the focus is on what is best for students, these and other anti-charter school debates would have ceased long ago. Unfortunately, education politics is about benefiting adults, not children.

Peter Murphy
for The Chalkboard
Twitter.com/petermurphy26
Facebook: "Chalkboard Nycsa"