Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute has a thoughtful essay on the need to think about school choice in terms of dynamic markets and entrepreneurialism.
In romanticizing school choice, enthusiasts have typically made two key mistakes. First, they have not fully considered what it takes for market-based reform to deliver results at scale. Second, they have mistaken the presence of choice for the reality of competition. Unless these challenges are addressed, political victories will prove pyrrhic–yielding modest results, sowing disillusionment, and fostering the perception that choice was just one more educational fad.
…In the school choice debate, many reformers have become so invested in the language of “choice” that they seem to have forgotten that choice is only half of the market equation. Markets are about both supply and demand–and, while “choice” is concerned with emboldening consumer demand, the real action when it comes to prosperity, productivity, and progress is typically on the supply side.
Simply put, market reform is not just about choice; it is also about enabling market mechanisms to channel human energy and ingenuity into solving problems and satisfying needs. Dynamic markets require much more than customers choosing among government-operated programs and a handful of nonprofits. Unfortunately, given an often casual faith in the power of choice, little has been done to eliminate the ways in which state regulations, licensure requirements, and funding systems stifle entrepreneurial ventures.
