Are Schools a Business or Government?

Our society is stuck between wanting our schools to be businesses and wanting our schools to be government.  I am not sure we can have it both ways.

How do we change governments that we don't like in the United States?  We vote for someone else to run the government.  If enough people don't like the way the government is running then we get new government leaders.   

How do we change private business that we don't like in the United States?  We don't give them our business.    If enough people don't like the business then it goes out of business.

Right now our public schools follow the government model via school boards.  I feel like more people want them to be like the business model.  How do you make that happen though?  How do you make schools a business when the bottom line is not revenue and profits, but people and learning?

What are your thoughts on this subject? 

We already have school choice

Last time I talked a little bit about what school choice might look like.  Today I wanted to mention another aspect of school choice, the fact that it already exists. 

Look no further than real estate prices for evidence.  Houses with good schools cost more because people are willing to pay more to get into those good schools.  One local example here in Virginia is a development called Kiln Creek.  It straddles two local government jurisdictions, York County and Newport News.  I compared similar sized houses that I believe are no more than a half a mile apart in the same neighborhood.  What do you think the price difference is between the one in the better school district versus the one in the not as good school district.  It is a $100,000 difference.  I recognize that other factors influence a consumers decision to purchase a house beyond just schools, but a quick glance at many real estate search websites will show that schools is an option that consumers can look at when reviewing houses. 

The problem with this kind of school choice is that it favors the wealthy and affluent significantly more than the poor because it is far easier for them to move into areas with excellent school systems.

This begs the question, are good schools good on their own or are they good because they attract the best students?

What do you think?  Is this a fair assessment of how things work today in our society?  Thank you for reading.  

A friend recently commented that he wanted the ability to choose where his kid goes to school.  He wanted to be a consumer.  He wanted a marketplace of school options that would allow him to pick where he could send his children to be educated. It sounds good on the surface right? It is what we do each and every day when it comes to consumer products.  We look for the option that best meet our need and then go purchase that option.

If we dive into the idea of offering a choice of schools a little bit more we start to run into some stark realities.  My first question would be who provides the schools?  Will it be the government or the private sector?  If it is the private sector only, what do you do for the children who come from families that could not afford to educate their children?  Do we want to be part of a society where education is not universally available to everyone?  That starts to sound very third world to me.   I believe very strongly that everyone should have access to a decent education up to a certain point.  That is the foundation upon which I build my arguments.

Let’s say that the government provides a minimum stipend to families that cannot afford schooling.  At what level would you cut off that stipend?  I think this idea of support creates a really touchy political issue, one that could be incredibly divisive.  Just look at Medicare, social security, and welfare benefits to get a sense of how touchy this might be.  Another issue I see with this idea is that you would have schooling segregated by socioeconomic class in this scenario.  I think there is great value in the mixing of everyone for a shared educational experience.        

If the government is still running schools, but families are free to decide where their children go you would see huge demand for the "best" schools.  What parents in their right mind would knowingly choose to send their child to a mediocre or bad school when they could just as easily send them to a good school.  I think you see this idea playing out when charter schools are forced to run lotteries to determine who gets into a school.  I don't see a lot of value in a system where everyone is always trying to go to the best school.  I think that creates a lot instability and turmoil in an area that should be as stable as possible.        

So looking at these options, how do you institute choice into the educational environment in a meaningful way while still offering universal access to education for everyone?  I am all ears if you have a good option.

What do you think?  Am I getting this right?  Do you agree with my arguments?  Post a comment and let me know.  Thank you for reading.