Encouraging Diverse Suppliers
Frederick M. Hess, Bruno V. Manno | Center on Reinventing Public Education
December 01, 2008
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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. . . .

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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.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess
  • An educator, political scientist, and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including The Same Thing Over and Over, Education Unbound, Common Sense School Reform, Revolution at the Margins, and Spinning Wheels, and pens the Education Week blog "Rick Hess Straight Up."  His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post, New York Times and National Review. He has edited widely-cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research, and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the Review Board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS, and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University, and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.

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