Innovations involving organizational and management changes seem especially attractive since, by contrast, they usually are described as involving lower, or even no, increases in spending. Thus, advocates of such ideas as vouchers, choice, privatization, charter schools, and a variety of other current proposals for changes in public education have found an interested audience all across the political spectrum. One of these ideas, privatization, has the great advantage of conforming to the overwhelming popular belief that markets invariably produce better results than do governmental entities. This popular support for the concept of privatization has been a major factor underlying the willingness of local officials to consider making changes involving dismantling or superseding existing public education structures. But doing so would ignore or dismiss the stake that all citizens, whether or not they have children in school, have in an educated populace.
Education is a prerequisite for a working democratic and capitalist society.
Public education conveys many of the values and skills that are critical to a functional democratic political system, and an educated population is necessary for economic success. If so, education uniquely justifies the pooling of community resources. Of course, the economics of big-city schools makes it impossible for anyone operating on a purely private basis even to hope to realize a return that would come close to justifying the necessary investment. Not surprisingly, then, most current privatization plans expect funding to continue to come entirely from public tax dollars. The notion that this approach can lead to no-cost improvement in urban schools is attractive enough to be included in the campaign appeals of many of those seeking office at all levels.