Is $12,000 enough?

"You hear a lot of stuff about how we need to run the district more like a business, but the school district doesn't sell a product for a profit. We rely on government money."

Toledo school board President Bob Vasquez, after voters overwhelmingly repudiated a tax hike to maintain funding to the city's public schools

Sit and think about that quote for a minute. Certainly, public schools are not run like businesses. But, ask yourself this: What if they were?

• What if schools had to please parents in order to stay in business?
  
• What if schools had to properly educate kids, and show progress over time, or risk going out of business?
  
• What if schools were forced, like any business, to run efficiently and maintain a cost structure that is sustainable?
  

In short, what if all public schools had to behave more like most private and many charter schools do already? Would these be bad things? Certainly not, in my book. But if you're still uncertain, let's turn the tables.

Take your local grocery store. What if grocery stores were run by the government and funded by taxes? In this scenario, would you expect to see better service from the government grocer than you get from your local for-profit grocer, or worse? More importantly, would you expect to see lower prices from your government grocer, or higher? Would the store hours be more consumer-friendly or less?

Most of us realize turning over our grocery stores to the government would not be a good thing. So why do we accept it for the far more important job of educating our children?

We need to realize that government funded does not have to mean government run. After all, that's how the food stamp program works. In essence, food stamps are a "voucher" that poor people can use to buy groceries at the store of their choice. Yet when it comes to the more important matter of educating their children, politicians refuse to give these same parents vouchers to select the best school for their child. Where is the common sense?

It seems to me the best way to improve our education system would be if they were actually run like businesses – or at least non-profits that couldn't use state coercion to raise ever increasing amounts of money. In fact, most private schools are run as cost-efficient non-profit businesses, knowing full well that they need to sell a product at a reasonable price that satisfies the consumer in order to stay a viable concern.

Toledo voters feel the $12,000 they spend per student each year should be enough to ensure a high quality education. And given the right education structure, laden with choice and competition, it certainly should be. But until politicians get the courage to change the system, our only choices will continue to be more and more spending, or unfortunate cuts for students. It is time to change the system.