Posted by
Deornwulf on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 9:02:41 AM
Critics of public education often cite business models as a means by which all of the woes of education can be solved. They claim that free market forces should rule the academic arena, promoting vouchers, charter schools and even the total elimination of public schools. The problem with this view is that education is not a product, it is an ideal; and ideals do not translate well to the marketplace.
In a free market, a customer is free to purchase goods and/or services from whomever the customer chooses. This competition in the marketplace encourages the producers of goods and/or services to meet the needs of the customer better than anyone else. Of course, the most important part of this transaction is that the customer places value on whatever is being produced. If the customer places no value on the product, there is nothing the producer can do to require the customer to take part in a transaction.
Analogies drawn between education and business fail in their comparisons because education has little or no value in today’s America. Conservatives constantly deride public schools as being totally worthless and unnecessary while liberals have no use for facts and knowledge if they do not further the left’s campaign of indoctrination. If the so-called leaders from both sides of the political divide cannot place any value on the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, how can one expect parents and students to do so?
The world of business is driven by profit margins and the law of supply and demand. The most successful businesses are those that can supply what customer demand, maximizing profit while minimizing costs. Schools today, both public and private, are charged with supplying a service, and education, that is not always in demand by the customers, the students. How can one determine profit margin or minimize costs without being able to adjust supply for something not in demand? It is impossible for schools to establish a free market business relationship with a captive customer base.
There are a multitude of problems in public schools today but solutions will not be found in the free market models being proposed. American society must undergo a fundamental change that starts placing value on education and the pursuit of knowledge. The conservative right must give up its insistence on a direct practical application to everything that is taught in a classroom while the liberal left need to stop letting “feeling good” get in the way the facts. Perhaps the best answer would be to eliminate compulsory education laws but still provide a public education for those who want one. Only then would one truly see the free market at work when Americans realize how little can be done without a high school education.