Show me the contract

Jonah Goldberg seems to think private business will do a better job of running schools because it's just better at everything. If we privatized all schools, we might get some good ones. We also might get quite a few with the efficiency of a Pentagon contractor, the ethics of a used-car dealership and the effectiveness of the New Coke ad campaign. Equating "well-run" with "private business" brings to mind a school run as brilliantly as the Enron Corp., with results as reliable as in the acupuncture business. No thanks.

The essence of contracting out work, privately or publicly, is writing airtight, enforceable contracts with accurate, measurable specifications that precisely describe the product desired. Some companies may have done a good job at charter schools, but until I see a good contract and good specifications for a privately contracted school, I'm not buying.

Many government contracts, such as those offered by the Pentagon, are already notorious for being fulfilled too expensively and/or inadequately, and those are almost all for tangible products, not the cultural, social and intellectual growth and well-being of large groups of children.

And no, the WASL is not a basis for a good specification.

— Aspen Swartz, Seattle

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