There are over 15,000 school districts in this country and they vary significantly in demographics, tax bases, governance, and curriculum. Most education decisions are made at the district level. Unlike in other industrialized countries, the federal government in the United States plays a modest role in education. Certainly, competition can spark creativity, and in good public schools teachers compete amicably to better serve students. It's also important to remember that competition in business depends heavily on advertising and cutting costs.
Bureaucracy acts like a sledgehammer and beats the life out of schools.
We must reduce bureaucracy in our schools, and developments toward decentralized control of schools are healthy steps in that direction. But we can't make bureaucracy into a scapegoat for all our problems. There are good schools within large, bureaucratic school systems, and there are bad private schools that are free of bureaucratic oversight. In some cases, bureaucratic regulations are hard-won protections helping to guarantee equity around bilingual education, affirmative action, and education for the physically challenged. It would be a step backward if such regulations were thrown out or ignored.