Guest Commentary: AEI's Special Report on 'How Government Supports Private-Sector Innovation, Except in Education'

The American Enterprise Institute's new "Private Enterprise in American Education" series is designed to pivot away from the tendency to reflexively demonize or celebrate for-profits and instead understand what it takes for for-profits to promote quality and cost effectiveness at scale. In this third installment of the series, John Bailey of Whiteboard Advisors demonstrates how for-profit educational providers are singularly excluded from federal governmental efforts to engage private-sector actors. Bailey notes that policymakers and government officials are comfortable with for-profits routinely playing a substantial role in addressing pressing social problems in areas like health care or green energy, but not in education.
"When it comes to other crucial challenges our country faces—creating a more reliable health care system, finding efficient sources of clean energy, or improving space exploration—policymakers do not ask whether they should engage for-profit companies, but how they should,” Bailey writes. “It’s time for education policymakers to follow suit.”
Click here to read his provocative study.
Click here to learn more about AEI's "Private Enterprise in American Education" series.