The school population that 10 years ago was comparatively homogeneous is not so anymore. There may be new demands on publishers from charter schools, from the homeschooling people, from the school-choice folks, as well as from the private schools that are growing in numbers and influence. And I think that older and more highly educated parents are going to be driving this segmentation. If they feel that the school district is not helping educate their kid, they will want an alternative and whether that s a parochial school or some other private school, a charter school or some other variation of school choice, you are talking segmentation. That has been the pattern in almost every industry.
Market segmentation is a natural phenomenon occurring in many services and products.
The public in general is shifting its attitude, demanding better education. Today there is an enormous political reservoir of talk about education. Surveys by Gallup and others, though, suggest that most people love their school district, but think the rest are inadequate. A growing proportion thinks that the U.S. education system in general is poor, and that is troublesome to me. I go back to my analogy with the credit card.