To stay in office, school board members have to be re-elected periodically. They make promises to achieve their re-election, and making good on these promises costs money. The result is a parade of new programs and services that are of dubious value, but carry a very real cost. Another difference between public schools and private businesses is competition. Because public schools deliver their product at no direct cost to the consumer, any competition is at a severe disadvantage.
Few consumers are willing to pay both school taxes and private school tuition.
The kinds of improvements in quality that arise through business competition are almost nonexistent in public schools. The result in our system of public schools should be easily predictable. Since no information on economic demand is available, it is inevitable that services will be provided for which there is little or no economic demand. This is a major cause of waste in the public school system. Costs continue to rise at alarming rates because of the effort to satisfy a wide array of wants and desires, without any process to reduce those wants and desires to genuine economic demand.