Finding Value Never More Important For Both Public and Private Schools

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Finding Value Never More Important For Both Public and Private Schools

I have been investigating, and you have been commenting on, the future structure of K-12 education.  In my morning paper there is an article about National School Choice Week, particularly important here in San Diego, which has one of the strongest school choice programs in the nation.  Families can apply for their students to attend any traditional, magnet, or charter school in the district, the second largest in California.  One parent described the maze of applications and campus visits.  Will it be a Chinese language program or STEM magnet?  Performing arts focus or high-tech charter?

I have been talking about the critical role of value proposition in forming school strategy and program development.  It should be easy to grab attention on the value discussion when we are talking about a private school that costs $25,000-$50,000 a year.  The discussion has been less obvious in the public domain, but snaps into focus with the drive towards more choice for families in more major urban districts.  2.3 million American students are now at public charter schools, and many more opt for a non-neighborhood alternative.

Here is the punch line that should resonate with all educators who worry about the future, which should be all of us.  Jed Wallace, executive director of the California Charter School Association: “…when people are empowered to make choices, their level of buy-in and investment at the school level is greater.”  That is a powerful statement for us to carve into our consciousness for two reasons.  First, the customer, not the organization, determines value.  Public and private schools alike must identify and amplify their differentiated value as seen through the eyes of prospective families, not through the eyes of just the school leadership.  Second, this empowerment to make choices is exactly what we are talking about as the core of student-owned learning, that drives student “buy-in and investment” in their own education.  When a school can empower both students and parents by engaging them to make their own choices, learning will flourish.

What does the system of K-12 learning look like 10 years from now?  The constructal law demands that it will be deep and strong where the flow of ideas is greatest, and weak where resistance to big ideas is dammed.  Schools that offer access to fresh ideas and exciting programs will flourish at the expense of those that do not.  It will be more widely distributed with universal access to a global knowledge network, the cognitosphere.  Outcomes and essential learning goals will be more diverse as colleges and other post-secondary nodes offer a vastly increased range of non-traditional learning opportunities, which prepare young people for jobs that evolve more quickly every year. Choice is inevitable, regardless of the politics driving decisions like voucher programs in your state.

Public or private, all schools need just one thing to survive: students. If your school charges $40,000 a year or is free to the public, you should be sharing the same discussion: Why should a student come to our school rather than the one down the street?

 

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By | 2013-01-29T15:44:54+00:00 January 29th, 2013|Governance and leadership, Innovation in Education|3 Comments

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3 Comments

  1. Holly Chesser January 30, 2013 at 4:32 pm - Reply

    I read your post and then read Camika Royal’s in Good, “Our education system isn’t broken; it’s designed to create winners and losers.”

    http://www.good.is/posts/our-education-system-isn-t-broken-it-s-designed-to-create-winners-and-losers/

    I value Wallace’s recognition that “when people are empowered to make choices, their level of buy-in and investment at the school level is greater.” We all want to find schools where our children can discover their full potential.

    My anxiety, however, is that not all will be empowered. The sentence that read for me as those it were bolded was “Choice is inevitable, regardless of the politics driving decisions like voucher programs in your state.” Choice is coming, and it’s probably an excellent thing. But will it be for all or will the design of the system prevent that?

  2. Kairi Gainsborough April 12, 2016 at 12:17 am - Reply

    I agree that you should choose a school based on the value it offers. Rather than looking at cost alone, I think the programs offered and the quality of education are more important. When my kids are old enough for kindergarten, I plan on comparing all the charter schools in our area to find the one where I Believe they will get the best education.

    • Grant April 12, 2016 at 11:54 pm - Reply

      Thanks, Kairi. Hopefully in your community there are a range of different types of schools that offer different values, and more than one that is right for you and your kids.

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