This article puts into perspective why Edison's "company" schools failed and why they aren't a true representation of a free market school.

On top of that, Edison has a lousy business plan. Making deals with large government bureaucracies rather than with individual customers is a recipe for failure. To sign up new customers, it gave up the integrity of its original pedagogical model. Edison sometimes sacrificed key components (such as longer school days and more teacher training) to satisfy the unions and school districts with whom the company was willing to negotiate.

The result is that Edison has been serving the wrong customer. Many other for-profit education companies have realized that the key to growth is to satisfy students and their parents rather than the bureaucrats who can sign large government contracts. According to a January 2002 report by the Commercialism in Education Research Unit at Arizona State University, there were 36 for-profit education management companies in the United States in 2001, operating 370 schools in 24 states. An overwhelming majority of those schools are public charter schools, which receive their funding only after attracting students to enroll in their individual schools. These companies have managed to grow their businesses incrementally, hoping for a small profit at each school.