George Joseph's new story in the Nation, 9 Billionaires Are About to Remake New York's Public Schools—Here's Their Story, suggests the answer to this post's question is yes.  The story details the role that hedge fund managers and other wealthy individuals have played in theorizing and financing changes in public policy in New York state.  The two major changes on which he focuses are more charter schools and less money for traditional public schools.  The story, if its inferences, are true is rather scandalous.  It might also put a different spin on the story I commented on two years ago regarding Goldman Sach's investment in Salt Lake City's pre-k program.  

Believing that pre-k would save the district money in the long run, Goldman promised to front the cost of expanding the city's pre-k program.  The catch was that the district had to promise Goldman a 40% cut of any subsequent savings in special education that the district accrued.  To me, this private investment was persuasive evidence of why the public should invest its own money in pre-k education, and need not let private financiers "get in on the deal."

Does either the New York or Utah story indicate a conspiracy?  Not necessarily.  But it does indicate that there is money to be made in education and we cannot underestimate the influence of this reality.  The public should be hypersensitive in evaluating education policies that directly benefit private industry or individuals.  Those policies might very well be good or excellent, but they might also be ruses.  Education experts and the research they produce, not the self-serving rhetoric of financial elites, must serve as the arbiters.