One common argument against charter schools is that some states allow for-profit businesses to operate schools that don’t always succeed by every measure. As a result, businesses sometimes profit from failing students. The false implication is that public schools don’t do the same.

Perhaps “profit” isn’t the right word to describe what public school districts generate, but it’s applicable to the administrators and teachers who fail to give students a quality education but escape accountability for not doing their jobs. They still get paid even though the students they supposedly serve learn little under their watch.