Groups Named to Lead Dozens Of Ailing Phila. Schools

By Karla Scoon Reid

America's most ambitious public school privatization venture continued to take shape in Philadelphia last week, as a state panel divvied up control of 42 failing schools to private companies, nonprofit organizations, and two universities.

Edison Schools Inc., the nation's largest for-profit manager of public schools, emerged with the greatest share of schools with 20—though that's 25 fewer than it had requested.

The multifaceted plan calls for an additional 28 troubled schools to be reconstituted or transformed into charter schools...