One common theme in education that exists in much of the world is the belief by government bureaucrats that they know better than parents. Many academics and development experts tend to believe that because parents are poor they cannot make good decisions regarding their child’s education.
James Tooley, author of “The Beautiful Tree,” finds some very specific examples in Third World countries of parents acting as consumers of education. Parents visited schools, talked with teachers and administrators, compared notes with other parents, and checked up on what students were learning by questioning them or asking them how often their teacher checks their homework. These informal tactics allowed parents to actively compare children in the government public schools to those in the private schools in their neighborhood.
During his travels, Tooley would frequently ask parents why they chose one type of schooling over the other. Here are some of the responses:
– One parent said, “government school children are always smartly dressed in good uniforms but when you ask them some questions, you realize that they know nothing.” – Another parent explained their reason for choosing a private school for their child by saying, “the children do not learn [in public schools]; all they do is play.”
Private schools are accountable to parents. If parents decide to withdraw their children and their fees, then the private school could go out of business. Owners of private schools understand this market principle and seek to keep their parents happy. Yet government experts don’t appear to trust the judgment of poor parents to decide the best school for their child and don’t understand how a private school can be accountable to parents.
Tooley believes in the education marketplace and finishes his book by saying “the market in education is powerful. It builds on something that no central planner can possibly embrace, the strength of millions of decisions by individual families, the millions of bits of information grasped by the Searchers who relentlessly create and innovate, modify and develop what the people want.”
– Brooke Terry