Romney and Bain Capital knee-deep in corporate-style reform.

Romney with Wm. Bain, Jr.

One of the few good things that came out of last night's Republican debate was the further exposure of Mitt Romney as founder of the notorious Bain Capital investment firm. In his 2010 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, Josh Kosman described Bain Capital as "notorious for its failure to plow profits back into its businesses."

But what wasn't mentioned was Bain's connection to the world of corporate-style school reform and privately-managed charter schools -- namely KIPP.  Among those I listed in my post, on the corporate muscle behind KIPP, back in April, was Bain's managing director, Mark Nunnely. 

Nunnely is director of the KIPP Foundation. He also directs New Profit, Inc, a group of "social entrepreneurs" dominated by Bain execs like Josh Blankenstein and Paul Edgerley. 

According to Forbes, 

New Profit investors get scorecards on all organizations once every quarter. They're usually familiar with them already but, at a glance, they can tell if their money is being put to good use. Poor performers are washed out by well-run operations. 

New Profit also operates the Pathways Fund. These two groups are part of a larger network of "investors" who provide millions in funding to private operators of charter schools as well as to Michelle Rhee's Children First, Stand for Children, Teach For America and other corporate "school reformers."

Vanessa Kirsch is the founder and president of New Profit and Romney served on the board of City Year, a nonprofit co-founded by Kirsch's husband.

The firm Romney once ran, Bain Capital, has deep ties to City Year and the new America Forward coalition. "Our business is backing strong management teams with creative solutions to hard problems," explained Mark Nunnelly, managing director of Bain Capital. "I think a lot of us like the idea that you can take this same approach and apply it to not-for-profits." -- AP Wire, December 10, 2007