Published: March 1, 1996

Hartford Dumps EAI

The nation's most extensive experiment in private management of public schools sputtered to an end in January, when the Hartford, Conn., school board voted to end its partnership with Education Alternatives Inc. in a dispute over finances.

Three pivotal school board members, who were elected less than three months earlier on a platform of keeping the Minneapolis-based company in Hartford, said their support for the experiment had withered during more than two months of negotiations over how much money EAI should receive from the district. "When push came to shove, we realized our interests were so far apart, and it was impossible to change the contract in a way that was mutually acceptable," said Ted Carroll, vice president of the board and a former leading backer of the EAI deal.

The end of the Hartford experiment is the second major blow to EAI in recent months. In late November, the Baltimore school board voted to end its three-and-a-half-year-old experiment with EAI. The firm had been put in charge of nine city schools. [See "Bullish...