There is growing concern that some public service providers may be nonprofit in name but not in fact. We consider this issue in the context of nonprofit charter schools, which sometimes subcontract their daily operations to for‐profit management organizations. We use unique data from Ohio to study how nonprofit charters’ reliance on for‐profit operators affects student achievement and attendance. The results indicate that charter schools with for‐profit operators are, on average, at least as effective as nearby traditional public schools with respect to both outcomes, and that the average low‐achieving student experiences greater test‐score gains in charters with for‐profit operators than in traditional public schools. However, charter schools with for‐profit operators tend to be less effective than other charters nearby, particularly for students with high test scores and low absence rates. Further analysis comparing the administration and outcomes of charter schools with different types of contracting arrangements suggests that the prioritization of profit may explain their different outcomes. This study offers insights for literatures on charter schools, contracting, and sector boundaries.

中文翻译：

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非营利纸箱中的营利性牛奶？非营利性特许学校与营利性教育管理机构分包案例


人们越来越担心一些公共服务提供商可能名义上是非营利性的，但实际上并非如此。我们在非营利特许学校的背景下考虑这个问题，这些学校有时将其日常运营分包给营利性管理组织。我们使用来自俄亥俄州的独特数据来研究非营利特许机构对营利性运营商的依赖如何影响学生的成绩和出勤率。结果表明，平均而言，营利性特许学校在这两个结果方面至少与附近的传统公立学校一样有效，并且平均成绩较差的学生在营利性特许学校中获得了更大的考试成绩。运营商的利润高于传统公立学校。然而，拥有营利性经营者的特许学校往往不如附近的其他特许学校有效，特别是对于考试成绩高和缺勤率低的学生而言。进一步分析将特许学校的管理和结果与不同类型的合同安排进行比较表明，利润的优先顺序可以解释它们的不同结果。这项研究为有关特许学校、承包和部门边界的文献提供了见解。