Faced with abysmal test scores and plummeting enrollment, the St. Louis school district in desperation hired a marquee-name New York bankruptcy firm in 2003 to turn things around. The firm sent William V. Roberti to handle the job. During his 13 months as superintendent, Roberti closed 21 schools, fired more than 1,000 employees, privatized many school services and pared $79 million from the school budget.
But after he stepped down declaring that the district had made "tremendous strides" toward putting its house in order, the corporate model for running schools in St. Louis has done little to improve educational quality. Nevertheless, the campaign to operate schools like businesses is finding an increasingly receptive audience among taxpayers across the country.