Resident Scholar Frederick M. Hess

Much of today's K-12 education discussion focuses on boosting the "supply" of quality district or charter schools. Such conversations typically emphasize creating new schools through charter school start-up funds; incubating charter management organizations through philanthropic measures; expanding voucher programs or lifting charter caps; or boosting public school choice programs, including through the public choice and supplemental service provisions of No Child Left Behind. Supply-side activities also feature measures to police the quality of these new schools through testing, No Child Left Behind-style accountability, and charter school authorizing. Much has been learned along the way, although we are far short of fostering a dynamic, quality-conscious supply side.

In these discussions, a lot of attention is also devoted to the demand side of the "supply-demand" equation. It consists largely of passionate rhetoric regarding the value of school choice, the number of parents seeking such choice, and efforts to make available the information families need to make wise decisions. Largely ignored is the demand for anything that is less than a complete school. So the need for textbooks, data analysis capability, or cost-effective educational strategies rarely enters the choice discussion.

Four related factors deserve mention on this count. First, there is a growing set of demand-side "consumers" who are neither parents nor traditional students. School districts and charter management organizations (CMOs) shop for different services to purchase rather than provide directly. Principals search for cost-effective reading and remediation programs. Teachers seek genuine professional development and effective assessment tools. Students who drop out or lose interest shop for an engaging learning environment that prepares them for adult success. . . .

 Click here to view the full text of this article as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and the director of education policy studies at AEI. Bruno V. Manno is a senior associate for education at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.