What once required a textbook can now be delivered faster, more cheaply and more effectively using new tools and technology. As schools, systems and suppliers respond, students will be well-served if educators, parents and policy makers recognize that public systems, nonprofits and for-profits all have vital roles to play when it comes to providing great schooling for 50 million children.

Join AEI’s Frederick Hess and prominent for-profit practitioners as they address this and other pressing questions about the intersection of federal policy and for-profits in education.

America's current K–12 education system is controlled by a seemingly impenetrable web of institutional interests. But new technologies and a renewed focus on student performance could fray the bonds between incumbents, creating an opportunity for nonprofis and for-profits alike to build a better American public-school system.

Policymakers should provide parents with a clearer picture of childcare program quality and give equitable oversight and support to all caregivers of infants and toddlers.

For-profit early care providers are crucial to filling the gaps left by public-sector early childhood education programs. Policymakers should--via effective rating systems--provide parents with a clear picture of program quality and give equitable support to all caregivers of infants and toddlers.

For-profits may have incentives to cut corners in pursuit of profits, but this trait is the flip side of valuable characteristics: the inclination to grow rapidly, readily tap capital and talent, maximize cost effectiveness, and accommodate customer needs. Alongside nonprofit and public providers, for-profits have a crucial role to play in meeting America’s 21st century educational challenges.

Despite the high-profile debate over the merits of for-profits, little is known about how these institutions differ from traditional schools. In "Crossing to the Dark Side? An Interview-Based Comparison of Traditional and For-Profit Higher Education," education expert Ben Wildavsky of the Kauffman Foundation interviews leaders from both sectors to take a closer look at the differences.

The observations and experiences of interviewees who have worked in both for-profit and not-for-profit higher education suggest that traditional colleges and universities will be badly mistaken if they assume that the travails of for-profits today mean that useful lessons cannot be drawn from their successes to date—and those likely to occur in the future.

Instead of involving the private sector, education policymakers have actually created policy and funding barriers that skew support to nonprofits and prevent for-profits from participating in programs aimed at improving teaching or learning.

The traditional Left-Right ideological continuum fails to capture the ways policymakers and the public confront questions about for-profit involvement in education.