Facts At Your Fingertips
Failing Public Education
It is no secret that public education in the United States is failing to educate students all over the country.
Monopolistic System
While there are lots of factors that contribute to the problem, the over-riding cause receives little or no attention: For over 100 years, public education in the United States has operated as a monopolistic system.
Each community has its own single provider of public education, and in most cases it produces the same product for every student year after year.
Responding to Education Monopoly
Some families have dealt with the monopoly by opting-out with private education or selecting their monopoly by choosing where to live. But a growing part of the population are captive because they can’t just pick up and move to a better school district. In those cases, the districts are the least likely to improve.
Innovate to Improve
Innovation is the only way to discover better outcomes. Because monopolies have no competition, they don’t need to innovate or improve their products – which in this case are the educational outcomes of their students.
Ways to Improve Educational Outcomes
Broadly speaking, there are three ways to improve educational outcomes for students in our current system.
Improving the Education Sector
Education is one area where improvement is genuinely in all our interests – and that requires a public education sector that is designed intentionally to innovate.