Why the Schools-as-Business Model Doesn't Work

If schools have to compete like businesses, then they'll have to improve in order to keep their customers. So goes the thinking behind schools-of-choice. But fans of choice (read: politicians who know very little about the educational process) forget one flaw with the schools-as-business analogy: the raw materials/students that go into each factory/school come from extremely diverse sources. In some cases, students find themselves having to move from school to school multiple times in one year. It's no wonder why our urban schools struggle to keep pace while rural and suburban districts thrive. From today's New York Times:

In some of Flint’s elementary schools, half or more of the students change in the course of a school year — in one school it reached 75 percent in 2003. The moves are usually linked to low, unstable incomes, inadequate housing and chaotic lives, and the recent rash of foreclosures on landlords is adding to the problem, forcing renters from their homes.

Michigan is trying to help by offering money to families to keep them in their current homes, neighborhoods, and schools. More on the effort can be found here.