WL> customers in the strictest sense because the education market is
WL> very different from an idealized marketplace considered in
WL> economic theory.  In looking for the analogy of customer, each
WL> of you has chosen an analogy that serves your purposes.  Matt is
WL> most concerned about the financial aspects of education, so he
WL> has chosen an analogy that captures the economic power of
WL> idealized customers. 
WL> public debate of how to structure our public education system -
WL> especially when that debate considers the considers the possible
WL> continuation of public education without public schools.
    My view of who the K-12 "customer" is goes beyond the possible 
continuation of public education without public schools.
    If the adult citizen is dissatisfied with public education, whether or 
not it is confined to public schools, that citizen will not vote for spending 
more of his tax money on K-12 education.  Instead, he will vote down tax and 
bond referendums, regardless of whether a voucher system is financed with tax 
money.  This happened already in California's voucher referendum, where 
affluent suburbanites whose kids already went to good schools voted against 
vouchers.
    But it particularly is crucial to the continued existence of public 
schools that the customer as I define him be satisfied.  Vouchers will not 
come about overnight, so public schools will need the voter's support at the 
polls.  That support at the polls (with vouchers) would then increasingly 
depend on convincing the voting-age public that the public schools deliver 
something for them even though their kid isn't in them.  
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
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