Give the Parents More Choice
Many of us have laughed at the joke styled around two people endangered by a wild, ferocious animal, though one of the two is less anxious because though he runs slower than the animal, he runs faster than his cohort. Competition is not a difficult comprehension. It is the fruit of earliest lessons on the playground, the classroom – and throughout our lives. A month ago, local media outlet KSN was interviewing Eric Bienemy, a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, as the camera focused on the training camp locker room door – “Hiring All Positions.” Be the best or lose your spot. It creates Super Bowl champions.
In any economy, competition among suppliers benefits customers. Could you deny that the many Toyotas and Mazdas on the roadways have not been good for the Fords driving alongside? What happens to TV cable rates when the two providers merge? Why do we have state and federal agencies/commissions to analyze and sanction business mergers? Monopolies never find a good reason for greater consumer choice. Why should the public education establishment respond to parental concerns when they know most parents can’t afford private options? The current establishment is a de facto monopoly, but monopolies work best only for the people who work within them. However, should good schools have anything to fear in a competitive environment? Don’t you wonder when people retort, “but with vouchers, the best students will leave the public schools”?
We cannot support excellence in education and deny increased competition. Government policy should promote competition among education suppliers because a greater breadth and depth of excellence will be the product when every school must answer the question, What more can we do to ensure that the customer picks us for their children’s education? Choices enhance, not erode, accountability. Choices strengthen the linkage between provider and consumer. School investors – taxpayers, like you – resemble any other investor: they want a favorable ROI; they want to get their money’s worth.
Choice is the American privilege. We push the cart up aisle after aisle putting into the basket one brand of this or that, each competing amidst an array of choices. We choose our doctor, mechanic, lawyer, and hair stylist, but not the kids’ teachers – unless you’ve got the big bucks.
If it is true that parental involvement is a crucial ingredient for school success, how do we get parents involved? Let them shop – and give them some money to shop with! Make schools accountable to parents. Let parents pick the peers their children will hang out with eight hours per day, 165 days per year. And why should so many strain to pay tuition to schools that are not run by the state and pay taxes to financially support schools they do not agree with philosophically or pedagogically?
How many times have we seen video clips of disgusted parents in front of a school board in the throes of lament? In the private sector, the parent shows disgust, distrust, or thirst for a new approach by removing their child from your class list and shopping for a better product. That keeps a teaching staff on its toes. Competition is the fairest way of determining merit pay for teachers. Better costs more.
With vouchers comes a smorgasbord of educational institutions targeting every conceivable student group. If the state standards and oversight create product from the same dough with the same cookie cutter, creative destruction and innovation and experimentation suffer. No single system can recognize, approve, or meet the proliferating diversity of educational need that exists in every school district.
The purpose of education is in the Latin root of the word. Education is “leading out” the learner, sending them confidently and skilled into the larger culture. If the state wants a strong role in ensuring appropriate education, let the state pay for the increasingly sophisticated and accurate tests available to determine aptitudes, interests, strengths, and personality tendencies of every student, learners who have much to learn about themselves. Talk about “one size not fitting all”! Every parent with more than one child knows that each is different. Talk of equality of outcome or equity becomes less important when we understand the nature of individualism, the peculiarity of every person. Decentralize. Particularize. Increase the number of education suppliers and watch the individual prosper and succeed.
If America continues to look primarily to a single, state-run education system, don’t expect test scores to rise or customer satisfaction to increase. Finally, are the children failing or are we failing the children?