Similarly, the Edison Project and Sylvan Learning Center will lose their contracts if their students do not learn.

CNN: Competition, Not Standards

In 1991 Christopher Whittle, a media entrepreneur, and Benno Schmidt, a former president of Yale University, founded the Edison Project, with plans to create a chain of 1, 000 for-profit schools.

ECONOMIST: Reading, writing and enrichment | The

Similarly, preliminary evaluations of the Edison Project, a private firm which manages 12 local schools, demonstrate that students have made significant academic gains on student achievement tests in three of the four Edison schools that opened in 1995.

CNN: Competition, Not Standards

Once completed, the project will sell 100 percent of the power and renewable energy credits generated to Southern California Edison under 20-year fixed price power purchase agreements.

WHITEHOUSE: 12/17/2010 WH Urban Affairs Newsletter