Why can't colleges act more like businesses? For the past century, legislators, boards of trustees, and private sector leaders have been befuddled by academic traditions. The scions of law-making and industry have scratched their heads and wondered why institutions of higher learning do not respond to the same prompts and incentives that work well in the marketplace. In response to the long-standing issue, Williams College economist Gordon C. Winston published the article "Why Can't a College be More Like a Firm?" in 1997. In the years since, others have taken up the same question. The Center for American Progress, for example, recently published "Disrupting College," wherein the authors suggest that schools might benefit from a series of radical disturbances, of the type recently witnessed in the digital economy. This report outlines the difference between schools and corporations. The goal is to extend the comparison between the private sector and non-profit education. (Contains 18 endnotes.)