Staff Editorial: The Edison complex

Philadelphia's public schools open today, ushering in a new era -- the era of private, for-profit operators.

How long this era will last is anybody's guess right now. The most prominent of the new operators, Edison Schools, Inc., faces serious financial difficulties. New city schools chief Paul Vallas, fearing that Edison did not have the funds to actually operate the schools, was forced to demand access to all of the company's financial records. Edison's stock, valued at $21.68 at the beginning of the year, closed yesterday at 73 cents, though at times during the last few weeks, it has hovered closer to 20 cents.

It is only reasonable to ask how this could have happened. After all, few would have believed that the schools' situation could be more precarious today than it was a year ago.

Regardless of how you feel about for-profit corporations running the public schools, the decision to turn over 20 of 42 privatized schools to Edison was based more on political favoritism than Edison's financial means or track record.

From the moment that former Gov. Tom Ridge hired Edison to craft a solution to the Philadelphia district's twin problems of failing schools and enormous deficits, there was little doubt as to what that solution would be -- Edison would recommend that the schools and administration be privatized, and that it should be the company entrusted with that task.

Sure enough, Edison's report recommended that the district be put into private hands. And though the final privatization deal was a far cry from Edison's recommendations, Ridge's faithful successor, Gov. Mark Schweiker, and his appointments to the School Reform Commission, made sure that half of the schools wound up in Edison's hands.

This is no way to reform the educational system for Philadelphia's children. After months of discussion, fact-finding and deliberation, the best candidate should have come through.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Edison was not that candidate.

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