Nonprofits To Sell Services to School Principals

Private groups are racing to turn school principals into customers after the school chancellor's announcement yesterday about the next phase of a major reorganization of city schools.

Nine private groups — all nonprofits — will be selling their support services to schools as one of three options available to principals starting next school year. Chancellor Joel Klein said the jostling among the private groups to win over principals would inject a much-needed sense of competition into the public school system, helping to revitalize school performance.

"Today, the competition to sign up our schools begins," he said at a news conference with the directors of the organizations. "I'm looking forward to seeing all that competitive juice flow through the system."

The chancellor was emphatic that the expanded role for private groups in the new system was not the same as privatization — something his critics have feared.

"I want to stress, this is not privatization and it's not private management," Mr. Klein said.

"They won't have the power to hire and fire principals," he added, noting that principals will be the ones to pick which organization they want to work with.

Principals have a month to do so starting today. While Mr. Klein said that would be sufficient time, the city's public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, criticized the time frame as too rushed.

The nine organizations principals can choose from are the Academy for Educational Development, American Institute for Research, Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association, City University of New York, Fordham University, Learning Innovations at WestEd, New Visions for Public Schools, Replications Inc., and the Success for All Foundation. Each will charge different amounts, up to $54,000 annually, for their services.

Schools will receive an average of $170,000 from the Department of Education to pay for the private groups. The department said it saved the money by cutting administrative spending.

Schools can choose to pay less and receive less outside support by becoming an empowerment school, or pay more to join the more intensive "learning support organization" that is taking the place of the current regional offices.

Thirty-six organizations applied for the contract, among them 10 for-profit groups that were not chosen, including Princeton Review, Ventures, and Mondo Publishing.