Business and education, how long will they last?

Today I found out that some students from University of California at Berkeley won a 24-hour contest to redesign the failing budget system of Oakland Unified School District (OUSD.) The local news showed video footage of the event, and it looked promising. The contestants who gathered with the purpose of making positive change in Oakland schools were business graduate students from all over the country, some who had not stepped on any elementary, middle, or high school grounds since they were students in grade school 15 years ago.

Footage of the competition showed people laughing, sharing knowledge, and young people looked motivated to make a difference using their expertise in business and economics. The winners of the competition are from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. Hip-hip-hooray, I think...I hope Berkeley makes us proud and maximizes effectiveness in allocating the sytems's limited funds. I did not get the impression that these students would actually implement the program for free, but rather that they provided the school system with a new design.

I will check in with the progress in a few months and see whether the school is able or willing to implement the winning design and how the funding for this is possible. Can business fall in love with education, and vice versa? Should I believe in this union? Can business support education without putting the integrity of good education at risk at the point when an opportunity arises to make more money? Will education hold its ground and remain confident in what it knows best- academic and human enlightenment? With business comes competition and profit.

I think business students can teach public schools a lot and help them sustain, but I also fear the revival of Coke vending machines in every hallway and daily newscasts in classrooms that begin with 5 minutes of mandatory commercial viewing. A world of opportunity becomes possible when business-minded thinkers take a crack at saving our country's neglected schools; but the inevitable question, for those seriously invested, becomes, how will they make a profit?