Public Schools as Products

Sometimes people entrenched in public education forget that schools, even public schools, are selling a product. The manner in which they promote, sell and deliver their product will determine who purchases their product. The purchasers are parents of school age children. The quality of the product marketed and delivered is directly proportional to the quality of the buyer.

School board members, administrators and staff too often operate as though they have a monopoly on education. This is an outdated and dangerous mindset. People are more mobile now than ever before. The Internet provides parents with information not posted on official district websites. With more cities in Mobile County forming their own school systems, any monopoly held by MCPSS is long gone.

Administrators and teachers at local schools have long been aware of this. They created special programs to attract the best and brightest students from across the county. When quality students sought refuge from a poorly performing zoned school, administrators arranged for a transfer. This is happening from kindergarden to grade twelve.

The receiving school is often caught between a rock and a hard place. Wanting these new children who bring academic, creative and athletic talent, and their families who support the school, while facing the disdain of district administrators and board members who want schools to seek no more than what wanders in off the street.

Why is there a fear of an open free market for public education?

Logistical and financial issues will be the first stated by those asked. But the fear of and certainty that some schools will be seen as winners and some as losers is likely a primary concern. This is nothing to fear, for in todays exceptionally well informed world, public schools are already viewed as winners or losers. Look at how real estate developers fight to build in some areas while ignoring others like the plague.

An educational free market has already arrived. Schools who actively participate in it will flourish. Those who choose not to participate will be forgotten.