Defining the Education Market: Reconsidering Charter Schools‪.‬

Several economists and education researchers have argued that current school choice programs fall far short of a true market in education. According to Frederick Hess (2004: 249), "Those who suggest that a smattering of charter schools, that a handful of school vouchers, or that the public choice provision of No Child Left Behind are sufficient to force systematic improvement are allowing their enthusiasm to get the best of them." Similarly, in School Choice Wars (2001) John Merrifield wrote about the limits of current school choice "experiments" and the necessary criteria for a true market in education. And when Andrew Coulson (1999) examined the history of market education and detailed the five features of a true education market, he also noted that current choice programs do not meet market criteria. In short, there is a fairly sizable body of scholarship that recognizes that most programs advocated within our current school choice movement lack fundamental market mechanisms. What Does the K-12 Education Industry Look Like?