If you don’t naturally associate education and free markets, you aren’t alone. Across Missouri, the vast majority of public school students attend the school assigned to them according to their address, and that settles the matter. It’s technically possible for families to choose their children’s school–they just need to move into another district or come up with the money for private-school tuition.
But this situation isn’t the result of immutable laws of nature. It’s a choice made by policymakers who single out education for “protection” against the market forces that we take for granted when we choose to purchase anything from a car to a hamburger. Putting power in the hands of the consumer has paid off in countless aspects of our lives, and it explains why new and better products are constantly being introduced. Why wouldn’t we expect educational outcomes to improve in the same way if families rather than bureaucrats were put in charge?
This essay explores the potential of free-market forces to improve education in Missouri in three ways: by increasing the variety of offerings available to students (in terms of both curricula and educational approaches); by using competition among educational providers to improve the quality of education; and by facilitating the spread of successful models so that the benefits of innovation are enjoyed by all students.
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20240710 – McShane – SMI Markets in Education
