BALANCING ACTS - WHAT CHARTER SCHOOLS TEACH US ABOUT GOVERNMENT - NONPROFIT CONTRACTING

When a government agency and a nonprofit organization enter into a con tract to provide a public service, each party must perform a delicate balancing act. The nonprofit organization must weigh the benefits of e ngagement with the public sector against the perils of entanglement. T he government agency must afford the nonprofit organization enough aut onomy to benefit from its flexibility and creativity, all the while ho lding the private organization accountable for furthering public purpo ses. This article develops a typology of technical, organizational, an d contextual factors that may affect each party's ability to strike it s balance and then uses this typology to analyze the experiences of go vernments and quasi-nonprofit charter schools in three states: Colorad o, Massachusetts, and Michigan.